Ubuntu / Debian

Install a punktfunk host on Ubuntu (Desktop or Server) or Debian 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.

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 through VAAPI on the Mesa stack — mesa-va-drivers on AMD, intel-media-driver on Intel — which your desktop install already provides.

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.

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

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
• 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.

Appendix — build from source

If the apt registry doesn't have a build for your release, 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:

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 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 -p punktfunk-host

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

cargo run --release -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.)