A field report from an iPad: the host is not found on first run, and
restarting the client finds it. Pull-to-refresh appeared to do nothing.
Both were real. The Apple client's discovery had three ways to go
permanently deaf, each needing an app relaunch to clear:
- A failed resolve was never retried. `browseResultsChangedHandler`
only fires when the result SET changes, and a host whose resolve
failed is still in the set — so nothing ever re-offered it.
- A stuck resolve never ended. `NWConnection` has no timeout, so the
throwaway UDP flow used to resolve an address could sit in
`.preparing`/`.waiting` forever, and a service with a connection in
flight was skipped.
- `NWBrowser` parking in `.waiting` was ignored (only `.failed`
re-armed). On iOS that is where the local-network privacy prompt
lands on first launch after install: the browse starts, the system
asks, and the browser waits. Granting does not revive that browser —
only a new one sees the grant. That is the reported first-run bug.
HostDiscovery now runs a 1 Hz sweep that times out stuck resolves,
retries failed ones on a 1→30 s backoff, and re-arms a browser that
stopped working; the advert's TXT is re-read on every browse report, so
a host that re-keys or flips its pairing policy is followed. Returning
to the foreground re-arms the browse (iOS/tvOS: `onAppear` does not
fire across background/foreground, and a suspended browse stays dead).
Pull-to-refresh did nothing because there was no `.refreshable` in the
client at all. Added, plus the explicit control the report asked for:
a toolbar Refresh on iOS/macOS, an action-row button on tvOS, a Rescan
tile in the gamepad launcher, Scan Again on the empty state, a
header-bar button in the GTK client, a hosts-page button on Windows,
and Scan again on Android. Decky already had one.
The desktop/Android browses needed a rescan trigger to make those
buttons mean anything: mdns-sd re-queries on a doubling backoff capped
at ONE HOUR, so a long-lived browse is effectively passive and a host
that appears later can stay invisible. `discovery::Rescan` forces a
fresh query; the wake-and-wait loops use it too, so a host that just
booted is noticed in seconds rather than at the next backoff tick.
Also fixed, found on the way: clients/windows/src/discovery.rs is a
second copy of the browse that d0fa8bd3 ("pin mDNS discovery to IPv4 on
every client") missed. It took an arbitrary first address, so when a
host's OS responder answered AAAA the Windows GUI rendered a card that
failed on every click. It also never noticed a dropped receiver, leaking
a thread and a :5353 socket per wake-and-wait.
Gates: Apple macOS + iOS (arm64-apple-ios17.0, proven non-vacuous) build
clean, 195 tests pass incl. a new one asserting a rescan re-finds a
still-advertising host. On .21: fmt, clippy --all-targets -D warnings
and build clean for pf-client-core + client-linux + client-session,
117 tests pass. Android :kit: and :app: compileDebugKotlin clean.
The Windows client is UNGATED — its CI runner was unreachable.
punktfunk — Linux client
The native Linux app for streaming a punktfunk host to your desktop, laptop, or Steam Deck.
It's a clean relm4/GTK4/libadwaita shell that finds hosts on your network, pairs with a PIN,
and manages your settings and library — the stream itself runs in the sibling
punktfunk-session Vulkan binary (clients/session), which the shell
spawns, putting the picture on glass at your display's own resolution and refresh rate.
Built in Rust end to end (no C ABI): the shell shares its plumbing with the session binary through
crates/pf-client-core, which links the punktfunk-core protocol crate and speaks the fast
punktfunk/1 protocol — QUIC control plane, GF(2¹⁶) FEC + AES-GCM data plane.
Features
- Zero-copy hardware decode — the session presenter decodes via Vulkan Video on every GPU vendor (including NVIDIA), falling back to FFmpeg VAAPI → DRM-PRIME dmabuf and then software when Vulkan Video is unavailable.
- Your display's native mode — the host builds a virtual output at exactly your WxH@Hz; no scaling, no letterboxing. Steady 60 fps at 1080p60, ~6 ms capture→decoded on the LAN.
- Audio both ways — PipeWire playback with a jitter ring, plus mic uplink to the host.
- Full controller support — SDL3 gamepads with rumble and DualSense fidelity (lightbar, player LEDs, touchpad, motion, adaptive-trigger replay). Click-to-capture keyboard and mouse, with a release chord (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Q) and focus-loss release.
- Find hosts automatically — mDNS discovery lists hosts on your LAN; saved hosts persist. First connect does a one-time SPAKE2 PIN pairing (or TOFU on trusted LANs), then reconnects on a pinned identity.
- Per-host speed test to pick a bitrate, plus compositor and mode preferences in Settings.
- Game library browser (experimental, off by default) — "Browse library…" on a saved host shows its games (Steam + custom) as a poster grid; click one to launch it in the session. Fetched from the host's management API over mTLS — paired devices are authorized by their certificate, no extra host setup.
- Gamepad library launcher (
--browse host) — a console-style, controller-driven library view of a paired host's games, rendered by the session binary's Skia console UI: A plays the focused title, B quits, L1/R1 jump. Built for the Steam Deck plugin's "Open library" launch; session end returns to the launcher. Arrow keys/Enter/Esc drive it too (no pad needed).
Get it
Most people should install a package rather than build from source:
| Distro | Install |
|---|---|
| Flatpak (any distro, Steam Deck) | io.unom.Punktfunk — see packaging/flatpak |
| Ubuntu / Debian (apt) | sudo apt install punktfunk-client (after adding the repo) |
| Fedora / Bazzite (rpm) | rpm-ostree install punktfunk-client |
| Arch (PKGBUILD) | see packaging/arch |
Per-device install steps and pairing walkthrough: docs.punktfunk.unom.io/docs/install-client.
Build & run from source
Requires GTK ≥ 4.16, libadwaita ≥ 1.5, FFmpeg 7 or 8 (with VAAPI for hardware decode), PipeWire, and SDL3 (with hidapi) development packages.
# from the repo root
cargo run -p punktfunk-client-linux # launch the app
cargo run -p punktfunk-client-linux -- --connect HOST[:PORT] # skip the host list and connect
cargo run -p punktfunk-client-linux -- --browse HOST # the gamepad library launcher
The binary is named punktfunk-client — the relm4/libadwaita desktop shell (hosts,
pairing/trust, settings, the desktop library page). Every stream and the console game
library run in the sibling punktfunk-session Vulkan binary; the shell spawns it
for connects, and --connect/--browse on the shell exec it directly (so the Decky
wrapper keeps working unchanged). Headless flags stay in the shell:
--pair <PIN> --connect host[:port] (pairing ceremony), --wake host[:port], and
--library host[:mgmt_port] (print a host's game library).
Layout
src/
main.rs · app.rs entry point, relm4 AppModel (window, trust gate, session child
lifecycle, typed messages), primary menu, CSS
cli.rs headless paths (--pair/--wake/--library), the --connect/--browse
exec handoff to punktfunk-session, screenshot scenes
ui_hosts.rs hosts page component (FactoryVecDeque cards, saved + discovered
grids, add-host dialog, banner)
ui_library.rs game-library poster grid (per-host, launches titles)
ui_trust.rs TOFU / PIN-pairing / request-access dialogs
ui_settings.rs resolution · refresh · decoder · bitrate · compositor · mic
spawn.rs the session-child plumbing (stdout contract → AppMsg)
tools/screenshots.sh store screenshot capture (app self-capture; Xvfb fallback)
The UI-agnostic plumbing — session pump, FFmpeg decode, PipeWire audio, SDL3 gamepads +
keymap, trust store, mDNS discovery, library client, Wake-on-LAN — lives in
crates/pf-client-core, shared with the Vulkan session binary.
Related
- Documentation — quick start, pairing, troubleshooting
- Steam Deck plugin — launches this client fullscreen in Gaming Mode
- Project README — the host, the other clients, and how it all fits together