Bazzite

Bazzite already ships everything a Slipstream host needs, the NVIDIA driver, NVENC, PipeWire, gamescope, and the KDE Plasma desktop. So a Bazzite host is the most "appliance-like" setup, and it streams both of Bazzite's faces:

• Steam Gaming Mode (gamescope), the couch/handheld game UI.
• The KDE Plasma desktop, the full desktop you get from "Switch to Desktop".

The host auto-detects which one is live and follows the box across the switch, including mid-stream. You flip between Gaming Mode and Desktop with Bazzite's normal Steam UI / "Switch to Desktop"; the host just re-targets whatever's running and keeps streaming. Nothing in host.env forces a mode.

Ideal when you want one box for game streaming and for remote desktop from the office. For a pure desktop machine, install on Ubuntu or Fedora and configure the KDE or GNOME desktop directly, simpler.

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.

Install

The host installs as a systemd system extension (sysext), no rpm-ostree layering. The Bazzite docs treat layering as a last resort (layered packages slow every OS update and can block upgrades until removed); a sysext never enters an rpm-ostree transaction: it overlays /usr read-only from /var/lib/extensions/, survives OS updates, installs and updates without a reboot, and is removable in one command. This is the same mechanism the Fedora Atomic maintainers ship via the fedora-sysexts project.

# From a clone of this repo (or download the script from GitHub):
#   https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vindeckyy/slipstream/main/packaging/bazzite/slipstream-sysext.sh
curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vindeckyy/slipstream/main/packaging/bazzite/slipstream-sysext.sh
sudo bash slipstream-sysext.sh install --from-file /path/to/slipstream.raw

Build the image locally with packaging/bazzite/build-sysext.sh. Operators with a private feed can set SLIPSTREAM_SYSEXT_REGISTRY and omit --from-file. See packaging/bazzite/README.md. When a feed is used, the checksum manifest is OpenPGP-signed (public key baked into the script), and slipstream-sysext checks that signature before it trusts a single checksum, so it needs gpg on the box, and it refuses a feed it can't verify.

The plugin runner rides along in the image but isn't started: run systemctl --user enable --now slipstream-scripting when you want plugins.

For later local updates:

sudo slipstream-sysext update --from-file /path/to/newer-slipstream.raw
sudo slipstream-sysext status     # channel, installed vs latest version
sudo slipstream-sysext remove     # unmerge and delete the image (~/.config/slipstream is kept)

After an update, restart the host so it runs the new binary (the updater prints this reminder too). The image carries the console as well, so restart that first if you enabled it:

systemctl --user restart slipstream-web     # only if you run the console
systemctl --user restart slipstream-host

To switch channel later, re-run the install: sudo slipstream-sysext install --channel canary (or --channel stable). update takes no channel flag, it follows whatever the last install wrote to /etc/slipstream-sysext.conf. To be able to go back to a build that worked, keep a copy of the image before you update, and re-install that file afterwards:

sudo cp /var/lib/extensions/slipstream.raw ~/slipstream-known-good.raw   # before updating
sudo slipstream-sysext install --from-file ~/slipstream-known-good.raw   # to go back to it

The web console can also run the update for you, see Updating the Host, which needs the one-time sudo usermod -aG slipstream-update $USER.

remove deletes the image and the /etc files it seeded (the tray autostart entry, and the gamescope session drop-in unless you've edited it), but three things it created outside /usr stay behind. To clear those too, services first, because once the image unmerges their binaries are gone and the units just keep failing:

systemctl --user disable --now slipstream-host slipstream-web
sudo slipstream-sysext remove
sudo rm -f /etc/modules-load.d/slipstream.conf /etc/udev/rules.d/60-slipstream.rules
sudo groupdel slipstream-update     # the (empty) group for web-console updates

Uninstalling has the same walkthrough for the other install methods, and for the clients.

Three things to know:

• After a Bazzite major rebase (Fedora 43 -> 44) the old image refuses to load rather than run against mismatched system libraries, run sudo slipstream-sysext update once and it fetches the image built for the new base.
• Already layering Slipstream? Install the sysext (it shadows the layered copy immediately), then drop the layer so it stops slowing your updates: sudo rpm-ostree uninstall slipstream slipstream-web && systemctl reboot.
• If it refuses the feed. refusing to install from an unsigned feed means that Fedora major's feed predates signing; it gets sealed on the next publish. To install from it anyway, accepting that the images are unauthenticated, run sudo env SLIPSTREAM_SYSEXT_ALLOW_UNSIGNED=1 bash slipstream-sysext.sh install. The other message, the feed's SHA256SUMS is NOT signed by the expected key, is not the same thing, don't install; re-download the script and try again.

For a fully baked appliance image there's also a bootc Containerfile that installs RPMs you point it at during image-build time, see packaging/bootc/ in the repo. Plain rpm-ostree layering with a local RPM (built via packaging/rpm or taken from GitHub Releases) keeps working too: sudo rpm-ostree install ./slipstream-*.rpm ./slipstream-web-*.rpm and reboot. The sysext is still the supported default. Building from source also works (Bazzite is Fedora Atomic underneath, same steps as Fedora).

Allow controller input

Gamepad and DualSense input needs your user in the input group. On Bazzite, don't use usermod, the base is immutable and the group is managed by a recipe. Use:

ujust add-user-to-input-group

Then log out and back in. (A controller that's "detected but does nothing" is almost always this permission, not a client problem.)

Configure

The RPM ships a Bazzite-tuned config you can copy as your starting point:

mkdir -p ~/.config/slipstream
cp /usr/share/slipstream/host.env.bazzite ~/.config/slipstream/host.env

The template is deliberately minimal, it does not force a compositor, because the host auto-detects Gaming Mode (gamescope) vs Desktop (KWin) on every connect and follows the switch mid-stream. No session anchors are needed either (a user service inherits the right runtime dir). The only settings that matter (GPU zero-copy is on by default):

SLIPSTREAM_VIDEO_SOURCE=virtual
# GPU zero-copy (dmabuf -> CUDA -> NVENC) is ON by default; auto-falls back to CPU. Set =0 to force CPU.
SLIPSTREAM_GAMESCOPE_ATTACH=1    # Gaming Mode = attach to the box's own session, SDR, and no cursor (see below)

Gaming Mode: attach vs managed

For Gaming Mode there are two models (pick one; the shipped default is attach):

• Attach (SLIPSTREAM_GAMESCOPE_ATTACH=1, the template's default), the box owns its gamescope session on its own display, and the host attaches to whatever's live without ever tearing it down (on a headless box, a box-owned autologin session is restarted at the client's resolution on a mismatch; with a display connected it streams at the box's own mode). Switching Desktop ↔ Game is rock-solid.
• Managed (SLIPSTREAM_GAMESCOPE_MANAGED=1, and remove the attach line), the host takes the box's gamescope over and relaunches it headless at the client's exact resolution and refresh, Game Mode on the virtual screen, restoring the box on idle.

Full treatment: Steam / gamescope -> How the host gets a gamescope.

Mid-stream Gaming ↔ Desktop following (SLIPSTREAM_SESSION_WATCH) is on by default on Bazzite/SteamOS. See Configuration for the full list of knobs.

Streaming the KDE Plasma desktop

The virtual output (video) for the Desktop session needs no config, the host package ships an io.slipstream.Host.desktop file whose X-KDE-Wayland-Interfaces grants the host KWin's restricted screencast protocol on a normal interactive Plasma session (background: KDE Plasma). After a fresh host install, log out and back into the Desktop session once so KWin re-reads that grant.

The one thing a normal KDE login lacks is the RemoteDesktop grant for headless input injection. Seed it once (as the streaming user, no root) so the host auto-approves instead of popping an un-answerable dialog:

bash /usr/share/slipstream/bazzite/kde-desktop-setup.sh

Gaming Mode needs none of this, it auto-attaches.

Run as an always-on host

Bazzite hosts are typically headless. Enable the host service and linger so it starts at boot, see Running as a Service. One host service covers both Gaming Mode and the Desktop; it follows whichever the box is in.

systemctl --user enable --now slipstream-host
systemctl --user enable --now slipstream-web     # web console: pairing + status
sudo loginctl enable-linger "$USER"             # start at boot with nobody logged in

Without that last line the --user units don't start until someone logs in, which on a headless box never happens.

Then open The Web Console for the login password and to arm pairing.

Good to know

These apply to the Gaming Mode (gamescope) path; the KDE Desktop path is unaffected:

• gamescope 3.16.22 or newer is required; 3.16.23 or newer for the Steam overlay. Below 3.16.22 headless capture can deadlock; between the two, capture works but the Steam overlay (Shift+Tab / the Quick Access Menu) is never painted into the captured node. Bazzite's current gamescope is past both; this only bites if you've pinned an old one.
• The template pins attach, and that costs you both the cursor and HDR. The sysext ships the slipstream-gamescope build, but it only reaches a session the host starts itself, and the host.env template above sets SLIPSTREAM_GAMESCOPE_ATTACH=1, where the live session is Bazzite's own stock gamescope. Comment that line out and let the managed default take over: you get the compositor-drawn pointer and real HDR. To stay on attach instead, set SLIPSTREAM_GAMESCOPE_HDR=0 and SLIPSTREAM_GAMESCOPE_BIN=/usr/bin/gamescope. Why each half breaks: gamescope -> Known limits for the cursor, HDR -> Linux + gamescope for the failed connect.

Those are the two that bite on Bazzite. The full set, touch, mouse modes, the clipboard, is on gamescope -> Known limits.

Then connect a client: Android, Steam Deck, or Moonlight for a smart TV. Trouble? See Troubleshooting.