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

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Ubuntu	Install the Punktfunk host on Ubuntu with apt.

Install a Punktfunk host on Ubuntu (Desktop or Server) from the apt registry. This page covers the distro-level setup — GPU driver, package, gamepad access. It works with either GNOME or KDE; 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. There is one universal host package. It bundles FFmpeg 8 and needs glibc 2.39 or newer — that's Ubuntu 24.04 LTS through 26.04, the range it's built and tested for. Check yours with ldd --version; below 2.39 the install fails and you build from source instead (appendix). The desktop client package is built on Ubuntu 26.04 and needs GTK4 ≥ 4.20 and SDL3, so it installs on 26.04 or newer only — the host has no such limit.

⚠ On 24.04 LTS, the package installs but the distro gives it no compositor to drive. The host .deb is built for 24.04 and installs cleanly — but streaming needs a compositor that meets the version floors, and stock 24.04 meets none of them: KWin 5.27 (floor 6.5.6), GNOME Shell 46 (floor 48), and no gamescope package at all (nor can the patched one run there — 24.04 is too old on wayland, libinput, libavif and pixman). sway 1.9 is the only candidate. For a working host, use 26.04, where the patched gamescope and current KDE/GNOME are all available. This is why Linux Mint 22.x cannot host.

On Debian, see Debian — the host, console and plugin runner are supported and CI-tested on Debian 13; the desktop client is not packaged for it yet. Debian 12 (bookworm) is below the glibc floor and cannot install anything here. Note that the debian in the repository URL below is the package format, and is the same URL for both distros.

1. GPU driver

On NVIDIA, install the recommended driver.

sudo ubuntu-drivers install      # or: sudo apt install nvidia-driver-<version>

Then make sure the GL/EGL userspace is present — Wayland compositors on NVIDIA need it, and the base driver package doesn't always pull it in. Install the libnvidia-gl package matching your driver version:

sudo apt install libnvidia-gl-<version>   # e.g. libnvidia-gl-550

Reboot, then confirm the driver and KMS modeset:

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: on a machine with Secure Boot enabled, the NVIDIA kernel module won't load until you enrol its signing key. If nvidia-smi reports it can't talk to the driver, run sudo mokutil --import /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.der (set a one-time password), reboot, and choose Enrol MOK at the blue screen. 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, both of which the punktfunk-host package recommends, so apt pulls the right one in with the host. Install mesa-vulkan-drivers too if it isn't already on the box.

2. Install the host (apt)

punktfunk-host is published as a .deb to the public Gitea apt registry, so the box installs and updates with plain 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 desktop client (punktfunk-client) is a separate package for the machine you stream to — not installed on a host. The NVIDIA driver is not a dependency — you installed it out of band in step 1. Later updates are just sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade, or, to move only Punktfunk, sudo apt update && sudo apt install --only-upgrade punktfunk-host. Either way, restart the running host afterwards so it picks up the new binary:

systemctl --user restart punktfunk-host

A plain apt upgrade also moves punktfunk-web when a new console is out — restart that one too (systemctl --user restart punktfunk-web) if you run it.

Updating the Host covers the rest — the web console's Updates card, and the opt-in one-click update button whose punktfunk-update group this package creates.

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, which is gated by the input group. Add yourself and re-login so the new group membership takes effect:

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

Also join punktfunk if either applies — you want the virtual Steam Deck controller (paddles, trackpads, gyro), or this box autologins into Steam Gaming Mode and you want the host to take that session over at the client's resolution. That pad reaches games as a real USB device over usbip — which is what makes Steam Input adopt it — and the same group authorizes the helper that stops the display manager for a takeover. It is deliberately separate from input, because writing the usbip attach file can materialise arbitrary emulated USB hardware:

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

Join it only on a machine you trust. On a plain desktop host, skipping it costs you nothing but that one pad type; on a Gaming Mode box the takeover silently degrades to mirroring the box's own screen — see gamescope.

4. Check it installed

Before moving on, confirm the binary is there and nothing else is competing for the same job:

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

If detect-conflicts reports another streaming host, remove it before going further — two hosts on one machine is the most common reason a clean install never streams. See Troubleshooting → another streaming host is installed.

Once you've enabled the service on your desktop page below, these are how you watch it:

systemctl --user status punktfunk-host      # active
journalctl --user -u punktfunk-host -f      # watch a client connect

5. Open the firewall (if you have one)

Ubuntu installs ufw but leaves it inactive, so out of the box there is nothing to open. If you did enable one — common on Ubuntu Server — the package ships the openers for both, because a package never edits your firewall itself.

The packaged unit runs the secure native-only host (serve, no GameStream), so a host you enabled with systemctl --user enable --now punktfunk-host needs only the native opener:

# 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

Enabled GameStream/Moonlight compat (PUNKTFUNK_GAMESTREAM=1 in host.env — see What the unit starts), or you pass --gamestream by hand? Then also open its service:

sudo ufw allow punktfunk-gamestream                               # ufw
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=punktfunk-gamestream && sudo firewall-cmd --reload

punktfunk-native opens UDP 9777 (QUIC control), UDP 5353 (mDNS discovery) and TCP 47990 (the mgmt/library API — HTTPS + mTLS, read-only off loopback). punktfunk-gamestream opens the fixed Moonlight ports — TCP 47984, 47989 and 48010, UDP 47998–48000 — plus the same mDNS. The media data plane uses an ephemeral UDP port the client opens with a hole-punch, so there is nothing fixed to open for video.

Running the web console (punktfunk-web) and want to reach it from another device? Open it too — that's TCP 47992:

sudo ufw allow punktfunk-web                                                             # ufw
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=punktfunk-web && sudo firewall-cmd --reload  # firewalld

Full port lists are in packaging/debian/README.md.

Configure your desktop

How the host creates its virtual display and injects input depends on your desktop, not your distro. Continue on the page for the desktop you run — it covers your host.env, any compositor quirks, and starting the host:

• 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.

Appendix — build from source

If your release is older than the supported range above, or you want to track main directly, compile the host yourself (no clean updates / no packaged units — you wire those up by hand).

Install the build toolchain and runtime libraries. The packaged host is built against FFmpeg 8: Ubuntu 26.04's libavcodec-dev is FFmpeg 8, but 24.04's is FFmpeg 6.1 — on 24.04 build FFmpeg 8 yourself first (that's what ci/rust-ci-noble.Dockerfile does, and the shipped .deb bundles the result) or stick with the packaged host.

sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config cmake clang libclang-dev nasm git curl \
  pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber libpipewire-0.3-dev libspa-0.2-dev \
  libwayland-dev wayland-protocols libxkbcommon-dev libopus-dev \
  libdrm-dev libgbm-dev libgl-dev libegl-dev libgles-dev mesa-common-dev libva-dev \
  ffmpeg libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libavutil-dev libswscale-dev libavfilter-dev libavdevice-dev \
  libnvidia-egl-wayland1 libnvidia-egl-gbm1 libei-dev

Install Rust if you don't have it, then build:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
git clone https://git.unom.io/unom/punktfunk.git && cd punktfunk
cargo build --release --locked \
  --features punktfunk-host/nvenc,punktfunk-host/vulkan-encode \
  -p punktfunk-host

Those two features are what the packaged build uses — without them the host has no direct NVENC (NVIDIA) and no Vulkan Video encode (AMD/Intel), and falls back to the slower libav backends.

The host binary lands at target/release/punktfunk-host. Configure your desktop as above, then run it from inside your session:

cargo run --release --locked \
  --features punktfunk-host/nvenc,punktfunk-host/vulkan-encode \
  -p punktfunk-host -- serve --gamestream

(The native plane is always on; --gamestream adds the Moonlight-compat surface — trusted LAN only. Drop it for a secure native-only host.)