punktfunk/docs-site/content/docs/running-as-a-service.md

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Running as a Service	Start the host at boot — for a desktop you log into, or a fully headless always-on machine.

Running serve in a terminal is fine for trying punktfunk out. To make a machine an always-available host, run it as a service. There are two cases.

The bundled unit scripts/punktfunk-host.service runs serve --gamestream, so it serves both the native punktfunk/1 plane and stock Moonlight clients. For a secure native-only host (no GameStream — its pairing runs over plain HTTP and its legacy encryption is weaker), drop --gamestream from the unit's ExecStart and use bare serve.

A. A desktop you log into

If you sit at the machine (or it auto-logs-in to a desktop), run the host as a systemd user service that starts with your session:

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
cp scripts/punktfunk-host.service ~/.config/systemd/user/
# Put your host.env in place first — see the setup guide for your desktop.
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now punktfunk-host

The host now starts whenever you log in. Check it with systemctl --user status punktfunk-host.

You don't need to export anything for it. The host finds the live compositor session itself on every connect and works out where to reach it (WAYLAND_DISPLAY, XDG_RUNTIME_DIR, the session bus, sway's SWAYSOCK, Hyprland's instance signature) from the running compositor — so host.env is for policy, not session plumbing, and systemctl --user import-environment is not a prerequisite.

Restart the host with your desktop

Add one drop-in so the host follows your session's lifetime:

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/punktfunk-host.service.d
# /usr/share/punktfunk/ on Fedora/Arch, /usr/share/punktfunk-host/ on Debian/Ubuntu,
# scripts/ in a source checkout
cp /usr/share/punktfunk/punktfunk-host-desktop-session.conf \
   ~/.config/systemd/user/punktfunk-host.service.d/desktop-session.conf
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user reenable punktfunk-host
systemctl --user restart punktfunk-host

Without it, restarting Plasma or GNOME — a crash, a log out and back in, "restart the shell" — leaves the host running against a compositor that no longer exists. It keeps listening and answering, and every session after that fails at capture, which is a confusing way to find out. The drop-in makes a compositor restart a host restart.

Skip it on the headless/appliance route below (which has its own session unit), and on Sway or Hyprland, which don't hand their session to systemd — start the host from the compositor's config there instead, so it comes and goes with the session.

B. A headless, always-on host

To run with no monitor and no login — a machine in a closet that's always ready — you need two things: a desktop session that comes up at boot, and the host service started without a login.

Start by making the host service start at boot even when nobody logs in:

sudo loginctl enable-linger "$USER"

Then bring up a session automatically. How you do that is desktop-specific — auto-login, lock disable, and the session unit differ per compositor, so each is documented on its own page:

• GNOME: GNOME → Headless session.
• KDE Plasma: KDE → Headless session.
• Steam / gamescope: gamescope — the host launches its own session per client, so there's no separate session unit.

Once a session comes up at boot, enable the host user service (section A) and reboot. The host comes up on that session.

Headless Bazzite

On Bazzite, the host launches its own gamescope/Steam session per client, so you don't need a separate session unit — see Bazzite and gamescope.

Windows

punktfunk has first-class Linux and Windows hosts. On Windows it ships as a signed installer with an SCM service and a virtual-display driver — including punktfunk's own indirect display driver the host pushes frames straight into. The Windows host is newer than the Linux host. (Not to be confused with the Windows client, which streams to a Windows PC.)

On Windows the host runs as a LocalSystem service that launches into the interactive session, so it captures the secure desktop (UAC / lock screen) and survives reboots with nobody logged in — the same model Sunshine/Apollo use. Because it runs at that privilege level, keep it on a trusted network and be deliberate about which machine you host on — see Security & Safe Use.

The easy path is the signed installer: download punktfunk-host-setup-<ver>.exe from the package registry (punktfunk-host-windows) and run it. It drops the host into C:\Program Files\punktfunk, installs the bundled pf-vdisplay virtual-display driver, and registers + starts the service for you (/VERYSILENT for unattended). Upgrades and uninstall are handled through Add/Remove Programs.

Prefer the CLI? Run punktfunk-host service install from an elevated prompt — see Windows Host. For hardware encode you need a GPU — NVIDIA (NVENC), AMD (AMF), or Intel (QSV); the host falls back to software H.264 without one.

Firewall scope. The installer opens the streaming + console ports on Private and Domain networks only — not Public. If your LAN is (mis)classified Public, clients won't connect until you set it to Private (Windows Settings → Network), and the host logs a warning when it's on a Public network. For a trusted network Windows insists is Public, tick "Allow connections on Public networks" at install (or pass --allow-public-network to service install). See Security & Safe Use for the reasoning.

Verifying

After a reboot, from another machine on the network:

punktfunk-probe --discover     # source-build dev tool (not packaged); or just open a native client / Moonlight and look for the host

If the host is listed, it's up. If not, check journalctl --user -u punktfunk-host on the host.