punktfunk/docs-site/content/docs/debian.md

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Debian	Install the Punktfunk host on Debian 13 with apt — including LMDE and Linux Mint.

Install a Punktfunk host on Debian 13 ("trixie") or newer from the apt registry. This page covers the distro-level setup — GPU driver, package, gamepad access. How the host creates its virtual display and injects input is desktop-specific, so pick your desktop on the configure pages afterward rather than here.

New here? Read Security & Safe Use first — a streaming host is remote control of the machine, so keep it on a trusted LAN or VPN and require pairing.

Which releases. The host package needs glibc 2.39 or newer; Debian 13 has 2.41, so it installs and runs there. Debian 12 (bookworm) has glibc 2.36 and cannot install it — build from source (Ubuntu appendix, which applies here too) or upgrade. Check yours with ldd --version.

The desktop client is not packaged for Debian yet. punktfunk-client is built on Ubuntu 26.04 and floors at libc6 >= 2.43 (Debian 13 has 2.41), on top of needing GTK4 ≥ 4.20. On a Debian box, stream to it with a different client — the Flatpak, or a build from source. The host, the web console and the plugin runner all install normally.

What works on Debian 13

Package	Debian 13	What it is
punktfunk-host	✅	The streaming host
punktfunk-web	✅	The browser management console
punktfunk-scripting	✅	The plugin/script runner
punktfunk-gamescope	✅	The patched gamescope (HDR + cursor + real refresh)
punktfunk-client	❌	Desktop client — libc6 >= 2.43, see above

1. GPU driver

On NVIDIA, the driver lives in Debian's contrib / non-free / non-free-firmware components, which a default install does not enable. Debian 13 keeps its sources in the deb822 format, so add them there and refresh:

sudo sed -i 's/^Components: .*/Components: main contrib non-free non-free-firmware/' \
  /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nvidia-driver firmware-misc-nonfree

Debian 13 ships driver 550, comfortably above the 535 floor.

Reboot, then confirm the driver and KMS modeset — Wayland on NVIDIA needs modeset=1:

nvidia-smi
cat /sys/module/nvidia_drm/parameters/modeset   # should print Y

If modeset is not Y:

echo 'options nvidia-drm modeset=1' | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-drm.conf
sudo update-initramfs -u && sudo reboot

Secure Boot: with Secure Boot enabled, Debian's DKMS-built NVIDIA module must be signed and its key enrolled before it will load. If nvidia-smi can't talk to the driver, enrol the MOK (sudo mokutil --import /var/lib/dkms/mok.pub, reboot, choose Enrol MOK) or disable Secure Boot in firmware.

On AMD/Intel none of the NVIDIA steps apply. Encode runs on the Mesa stack: Vulkan Video for HEVC and AV1 (mesa-vulkan-drivers), with VAAPI for H.264 and as the fallback — mesa-va-drivers on AMD, intel-media-va-driver on Intel (the latter is in non-free).

2. Install the host (apt)

The registry is public — no auth needed, just trust its signing key:

sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://git.unom.io/api/packages/unom/debian/repository.key \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/punktfunk.asc >/dev/null

echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/punktfunk.asc] https://git.unom.io/api/packages/unom/debian stable main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/punktfunk.list

sudo apt update
sudo apt install punktfunk-host

punktfunk-host Recommends the browser console (punktfunk-web), so apt pulls it in by default. The NVIDIA driver is not a dependency — you installed it out of band in step 1. Later updates are sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade; restart the running host afterwards so it picks up the new binary:

systemctl --user restart punktfunk-host

The stable component above is the stable channel. To track pre-release builds instead, see Release Channels.

3. Grant gamepad access

Virtual gamepads inject through /dev/uinput, gated by the input group. Add yourself and re-login:

sudo usermod -aG input "$USER"     # re-login to apply

Also join punktfunk if you want the virtual Steam Deck controller (paddles, trackpads, gyro) — it reaches games as a real USB device over usbip, which is what makes Steam Input adopt it. Join it only on a machine you trust: writing the usbip attach file can materialise arbitrary emulated USB hardware.

sudo usermod -aG punktfunk "$USER"  # re-login to apply

4. Check it installed

punktfunk-host --version           # the binary is on PATH
punktfunk-host detect-conflicts    # exits 1 if Sunshine/Apollo is also installed

Two hosts on one machine is the most common reason a clean install never streams — see Troubleshooting.

5. Open the firewall (if you have one)

Debian ships no firewall enabled by default, so out of the box there is nothing to open. If you run one, the package installs the openers:

# ufw:
sudo ufw allow punktfunk-native

# firewalld:
sudo firewall-cmd --reload                                        # load the installed definitions
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=punktfunk-native
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Add punktfunk-gamestream for Moonlight compat and punktfunk-web (TCP 47992) to reach the console from another device. Full port lists are in packaging/debian/README.md.

Cinnamon, Linux Mint and LMDE

A Cinnamon desktop cannot host a virtual display, and no setting changes that. Punktfunk gives each client its own screen at that device's exact resolution by asking the compositor to create a virtual output. Cinnamon's compositor, Muffin, has no such API: it forked from Mutter 3.36, and its org.cinnamon.Muffin.ScreenCast interface offers only RecordMonitor and RecordWindow — never the RecordVirtual that Mutter gained in 42. Its portal backend (xdg-desktop-portal-xapp) implements no ScreenCast either, so the route that serves Sway and Hyprland is closed too. This is upstream's to fix, not a Punktfunk setting.

What does work on a Mint or LMDE box is gamescope: the host starts its own headless gamescope for each connecting client and runs the game inside it, so it needs no desktop compositor at all. Your Cinnamon session keeps running untouched; the stream is the game, not the desktop.

sudo apt install punktfunk-gamescope
echo 'PUNKTFUNK_COMPOSITOR=gamescope' >> ~/.config/punktfunk/host.env
systemctl --user restart punktfunk-host

The pin is required: auto-detection reads the live session, finds Cinnamon, and stops with an error rather than guessing. Set a game to launch with PUNKTFUNK_GAMESCOPE_APP or per-session launch commands, then see Steam / gamescope for the rest.

Install punktfunk-gamescope, not Debian's. Debian ships no gamescope package at all, and the patched build is what gives the stream HDR, a visible cursor, and the client's real refresh rate instead of a hardcoded 60 Hz.

If you want to stream the desktop from a Mint box, the answer today is to run a KDE, GNOME, Sway or Hyprland session instead — all four expose a virtual-output API.

Configure your desktop

How the host creates its virtual display and injects input depends on your desktop, not your distro:

• KDE Plasma (KWin)
• GNOME (Mutter)
• Steam / gamescope
• Hyprland
• Sway / wlroots

Then bring up The Web Console to arm pairing and connect your first client. To run the host at boot — including fully headless — see Running as a Service.

Next steps

• Keep it current — Updating the Host.
• Remove it again — Uninstalling.
• Something not working? — Troubleshooting.
• Build from source (Debian 12, or tracking main) — the Ubuntu appendix applies unchanged; Debian 13's libavcodec-dev is new enough to build against.