[SandmanUT]

I've been using your script to run the Openelec/Kodi/ChromeOS configuration on my Asus (moo4u) box for quite some time now in a set it, let the kids play with it and forget it mode. It's worked great for that with kodi streaming movies from my NAS (no fingerprints on discs) and doing their homework out of the current chromeos.

However...

I now am at a point I'd like to add a gaming path (specifically Rocksmith and other music games) to that point in my home and was just considering some extended HDMI/controller options to hit that TV from a capable pc tower in my basement, but I also know that some have used the chromebox as a streaming extension for Steam.

So my question is this, I'd like to retain the functions that we already use heavily with the Kodi/ChromeOS setup, which are most important to me. What would be the ideal configuration to add the Steam streaming element to that mix? It's on a wired LAN with an Archer c9 anchoring. Is Gallium robust enough? Latest Ubuntu play nice with the current/latest configs of Matt's script? SteamOS? Run from the internal hard drive or a stubby/late generation USB3 stick with a lot more space?

What would you do if it was your box and in the control of kids under 10 years old 90% of the time? (they've got the start up keyboard commands to switch the current OS just fine)

Thanks!

while I haven't tested it out in a while, I think that switching to a dedicated SteamOS setup might me the way to go. I believe you can easily install Kodi from their repo now (or at least, debian's) and it gives you the BP interface that is very kid friendly. I tested this out a year or so ago, and the only stumbling block was getting HD audio to passthru correctly, but I think that's been resolved. You wouldn't be able to dual-boot it with ChromeOS (I don't think), but if you don't need to then maybe worth investigating?

You can certainly run both Steam and Kodi perfectly well from GalliumOS, even have Steam auto-start in BP mode and launch Kodi from there.

edit: one benefit you would get from switching to the latest standalone (UEFI) firmware is that the dedicated video memory is increased from 32MB to 96MB, which can help a lot with some games; adding another 2GB of RAM (so it runs in dual channel mode) helps quite a bit as well

That was an unexpected answer! :O

I was unaware of Kodi being available inside of Steam! I like the idea of a single stream for everything and it looks like Chrome is available inside SteamOS now instead of Iceweasel only, which helps with things like running Netflix or Hulu, etc as well as a few plugins we use. I'm pretty sure I added RAM to the box at the beginning to max it at 4, but that's an easy check/fix. When you ran your test, was there enough overhead on the machine to run Kodi on top of Steam without issues? Could I take it for a testdrive from a bootable stick?

I'm guessing that driver support would still be there for the IR receiver I have plugged in that works great with Openelec/Kodi and harmony remote.

I'll check out the UEFI update as well.

Thanks for your input Matt!