Requirements

Supported setups

A Slipstream host runs on a Linux machine with a dedicated GPU. NVIDIA (NVENC) is the most-exercised path, and AMD/Intel GPUs work via Vulkan Video or VAAPI. Setup splits along two axes: you install the package per distro, then configure the host, and learn its quirks, per desktop/compositor.

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.

Distros, install the package:

Desktops, configure and quirks:

Pick your distro to install, then your desktop to configure. The two are independent. The host needs one of these compositor backends to create a virtual display.

Support is deliberately non-uniform: each compositor and each GPU vendor gets its own capture, display and input backend, and they are not equally capable. The Support matrix has a row for every host desktop, GPU and client app, with each cell taken from the code that makes the decision. Read it before assuming a feature is available on your combination.

GPU and driver

An NVIDIA GPU with NVENC, effectively any GeForce RTX or workstation card. NVENC is what encodes the video in hardware.
NVIDIA driver 535 or newer (550+ recommended). The driver must include the GL/EGL userspace, not just nvidia-utils. Without it the compositor can't initialise the GPU and capture fails. Each install guide installs the right package (e.g. libnvidia-gl-<version> on Ubuntu).
nvidia-drm modeset=1 must be enabled (Wayland on NVIDIA needs it). The install guides cover this.
AMD / Intel GPUs encode without any of the NVIDIA pieces above. For HEVC and AV1 the host goes through Vulkan Video by default, so you want an up-to-date Mesa and the matching Vulkan driver, mesa-vulkan-drivers on Ubuntu, vulkan-radeon / vulkan-intel on Arch. VAAPI (mesa-va-drivers or intel-media-driver) is the H.264 path and the fallback for everything else: a machine with only the VAAPI driver still streams, it just gives up the Vulkan path's cleaner recovery from packet loss. SLIPSTREAM_VULKAN_ENCODE=0 pins VAAPI. Validated live on AMD RDNA3. On modern Intel (Gen12/Tiger Lake and newer, including Arc) the VAAPI driver only offers the low-power (VDEnc) encode entrypoint. The host detects this and falls back automatically (SLIPSTREAM_VAAPI_LOW_POWER=1|0 pins it), and low-power encode needs the HuC firmware loaded (the kernel default on those platforms; check dmesg | grep -i huc if encoding fails). A GPU-less software H.264 encoder also exists (SLIPSTREAM_ENCODER=software), meant as a fallback rather than a daily driver.

Consumer GeForce cards historically cap the number of concurrent NVENC sessions (a few at once); workstation cards don't. This only matters if you stream to many devices simultaneously.

HDR and 10-bit

HDR (10-bit BT.2020 PQ) is on by default, and what a Linux box needs for it is a gamescope session running the patched slipstream-gamescope build, or GNOME 50 or newer mirroring a real HDR monitor on the GameStream plane. The ordinary KWin, Mutter and wlroots virtual displays are 8-bit upstream and stream SDR. HDR has the full chain, per host and per client, and how to find the link that is missing.

Desktop session

The host attaches to a Wayland desktop session and creates virtual displays in it, so either a session is running for the user the host runs as, or the host brings one up itself. This can be:

a normal logged-in desktop (you're sitting at the machine, or it auto-logs-in),
a headless session that comes up at boot with no monitor or login, see Running as a Service, or
no session at all, on the gamescope backend the host spawns its own headless gamescope per client connect (on a Steam appliance it can bring up the whole Steam session), so nothing has to be running beforehand. Auto-detection reads the live session, so on a box that boots to nothing, set SLIPSTREAM_COMPOSITOR=gamescope in host.env. With a gamescope session already running the host finds it by itself. See Steam / gamescope.

Minimum compositor versions (newer is fine):

KWin ≥ 6.5.6 (KDE Plasma), headless virtual outputs.
GNOME ≥ 48 (Mutter), virtual-monitor screen-cast.
gamescope ≥ 3.16.22 (Bazzite/Steam), below this, headless capture deadlocks against PipeWire ≥ 1.6.
gamescope ≥ 3.16.23 for the Steam overlay (Shift+Tab / Quick Access Menu) to reach the stream at all. Older builds never paint it into the node the host captures, so no host setting can bring it back.

For HDR on gamescope you additionally need the patched slipstream-gamescope build, see HDR and 10-bit above.

The same floors, with what each one gates, are in Version floors worth knowing. Where the two disagree, the matrix is the one checked against the code.

Network

Host and client on the same network, a LAN, or a VPN that puts them on one subnet. Slipstream assumes a trusted local network; it's not built to be exposed to the public internet. Don't port-forward it. To stream from outside your home, use a VPN so the remote client is on the same private subnet.
For best results, a wired or fast Wi-Fi link. The host can run a built-in speed test to pick a bitrate for your link (see Configuration).

A client

You also need something to stream to, see Connect a Client. There are native Slipstream clients for Android and Steam Deck, and any Moonlight client works too. All of them can discover the host on your network automatically.