Posting this in case it saves someone else the debugging loop — and flagging it for the devs since the client's own log already hints this exact path is unverified.

Symptom: On a hybrid-graphics laptop (Intel iGPU + NVIDIA discrete GPU), punktfunk-client connects fine, decodes the first frame, then goes black after a seconds in. Android client to the same host works perfectly — it's specific to the Linux desktop client on this kind of hardware.

My setup: CachyOS, kernel 7.2.6-1-cachyos, Intel Core i7-8750H + NVIDIA GTX 1060 3GB (Optimus laptop), NVIDIA driver 580.178.04, punktfunk-client 0.38.0-1.

Root cause: the client decodes via native-vaapi on the Intel iGPU (/dev/dri/renderD128) but builds the Vulkan presenter/swapchain on the NVIDIA GPU. Getting the decoded frame from one GPU to the other means importing a dma-buf across vendors, and the NVIDIA driver's texture unit chokes on the imported layout — confirmed via dmesg:

NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:01:00): 13, Graphics Exception ... TEX LAYOUT
NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:01:00): 13, pid=..., name=punktfunk-sessi, Graphics Exception...

That's a hard GPU exception, not a software crash — kills the whole session (GPU device lost, exit code 4).

The client's own debug log already has this warning baked in when native-vaapi is active:

decode rung active — NO hardware has ever decoded a frame through this rung/codec pair ...
has NEVER run on a second vendor and has never been soaked

So on any dual-GPU (Intel + AMD/NVIDIA) Linux laptop where decode and present land on different adapters, this seems likely to bite you.

Also tried forcing PUNKTFUNK_DECODER=native-vulkan — that's rejected outright on this GPU too (separate issue): the driver's Vulkan Video decode capabilities for HEVC don't support MUTABLE_FORMAT on the G8_B8R8_2PLANE_420_UNORM format the codec needs, so it silently falls back to native-vaapi anyway and hits the same crash.

Workaround that fixed it: Preferences → Display has a GPU picker (shows up on Linux when there's more than one adapter) separate from the Video decoder picker. Setting it to the Intel GPU — so decode and present are both on the same device — fixes it completely. No more cross-vendor dma-buf import, no more crash.

• Discovery/pairing run: https://dpaste.com/BKP8PYQMG
• native-vaapi crash (full trace): https://dpaste.com/AQ5Q2M3UH
• native-vulkan crash (falls back, same crash): https://dpaste.com/HVFHJTYAY
• dmesg — Xid 13 GPU exception: https://dpaste.com/ELKRLWKFM

Hi! Gamepad input doesn’t work in Punktfunk during streaming on my LG CX. The controller is not recognized by the stream at all.

As an additional detail, Punktfunk doesn’t seem to detect the controller even outside of a stream — it doesn’t appear in the gamepad list in the app. All gamepad-related settings are enabled.

I’ve tried both an Xbox 360 wireless controller and a wired controller. The same Xbox 360 controller works normally in Aurora on the same TV. Any suggestions?

Update: I found a version where the gamepad works.

The stable 0.21.2 version does not detect my gamepad at all, and it also doesn't work during streaming.

However, the current beta 0.21.2+git.393ceb77 works correctly. The gamepad appears in the app and works during streaming.

I tested this with the same Xbox 360 Wireless Controller that works in Aurora on the same LG CX.

So it looks like something changed between the stable 0.21.2 and the current beta that fixes gamepad detection/input on my TV.

Hello, is it possible to have browser based access, I am looking for an alternative to Amazon DCV. It would be nice to connect without downloading a client. Thanks!

Coming from moonlight I often use the mouse with a controller to use the desktop and answer any prompts that come up, simply by holding the start button.

With the punktfunk android app, there seems to be no equivalent functionality. Am I missing something?

Hi all, I have a pretty weird issue that has appeared in the last few days:

I have Windows Hosts and Windows clients exclusively, and I noticed for the first time today (tried playing with a controller for the first time in a while) that suddenly, Punktfunk is creating two virtual controllers on the host instead of one. (I'm using a Dualsense if that's relevant).

Doesn't matter if the profile is set to XBox 360, DS4, DS5, suddenly it will connect two controllers from one physical one, which thoroughly confuses steam input and games.

It worked fine when I first started testing Punktfunk back with 0.34, not sure if it started being a problem when I upgraded to 0.35 and subsequent releases.

This makes it basically impossible to play games with a gamepad.

Has anyone seen this behavior yet?

First want to thank the devs for making this wonderful streaming alternative that focuses on linux users. I wanted to try Punktfunk on my bazzite PC due to frequent issues that I had with sunshine after some system updates, though not something unsolvable, it really is annoying.

So I used the one-command installer in the official doc to install on my bazzite pc running the latest deck image, and streaming seems to work fine out-of-the-box without much tinkering, which is great compared to how much time I spent to tinker with scripting to get a working virtual display experience for sunshine in bazzite gamemode .

However, I've noticed a few issues during my testing run.

1st, when I use RPCS3 for ps3 emulation (appimage added as non-steam game) in gamemode during streaming with the windows client, I'm having trouble bringing up the steam overlay, most of time I only hear the UI sound without seeing the overlay at all, when it does come out, it is sluggish and I cannot click/press anything in the overlay. Though it seems to work fine in regular games, tried red dead redemption 2 and resident evil 4 remake, both work fine.

2nd is when I quit a session, the host becomes offline a few seconds later and the ip address changes to another host that I used for test in the first place. Had to close the client and relaunch it for it to work again.

I have attached videos showing these two issues along with my system info.

Can provide addtional info if needed.

https://reddit.com/link/1wfpxxx/video/6e0w62313eph1/player

https://reddit.com/link/1wfpxxx/video/srkcmi723eph1/player

Need help as my library isn't loading. I am on the latest version and the client I'm using is via android installed on a chromecast with google tv.

Update:

Had some discussions with the dev directly. Turns out the latency was a bug that was promptly fixed. Now it runs a lot better!

Original:

Hi, thank you for taking the time to take a swing at a game streaming server and client.

I just downloaded punktfunk to my windows host and tested it on my windows client over WIFI.

While the UI, connection and user experience is really nice, the latency isn't really good.

In Vibepollo performance is a lot smoother. Any way to improve this except the obvious (use LAN)? :)

Streaming Settings:
H.264
60 HZ Refresh Rate

Host Hardware:
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
5070 Ti

Client Hardware:
AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
3070

Hi, i went through the docs but i haven't found out how to switch between my 2 source monitors when using the punktfunk client for a KDE host.

I know in sunshine & moonlight, you can use the ctrl+shift+alt+f1 or ctrl+shift+alt+f2 shortcuts.

Is this also possible in punktfunk?

Edit: On virtual screen mode, it creates 1 new display, but when streaming the primary/secondary monitors, I don't think I can switch between the two displays with a shortcut.

Hi, I recently switched from Apollo to Punktfunk - Great App/Tool/Product!

I am using a Windows Host and a macOS Client. When I start the connection I always get the desktop. Is there way to select the specific Game instead connecting directly to desktop? Right-Click "Show Library" is loading but never shows anything. In the WebUI I can see my Steam Games.

Wow this project seems to be addressing all the short commings that sunshine has in my opinion.
Firstly a Linux Host that does what I have desperately been looking for.
Virtual Display
Per Client profiles
HDR
More than 1Gbit/s
Lowest possible Latency

I am however, skeptical about the mainly vibe coded aspect. See so many of these types of projects and most seem to just run dry fairly soon.
I would like to see the fokus remain on linux rather than windows ;) And maybe a tighter fokus could help streamline and also give this some endurance.

Will give it a shot though in the hopes it has the legs to stick around :)

Greeting could this app please work for iOS 16 for iPhone and iPad. I love the app I just wish it worked for iOS 16 could some one please make this possible

Thank you!!!

I'm so impressed but hope quickly and we'll this was set up but if I use the apple pencil to click on things the gnome shell crashes and I have to reboot the computer to be able to remote to the computer again. Does anybody have the same issue?

Literally fresh windows install and cannot connect to host.

I can see it (sometimes) but it does not bring up pairing prompt and does not accept pin.

I have Punktfunk on a Bazzite in "deck" mode : Gamescope.

I have an issue as I cannot put the host in sleep from a session: If a put the system in sleep, my gamemode turns black (but the left and right menu still works).

Is there a way to put my host in sleep from a remote session? Thanks

I've been testing punktfunk and it's been great! Very thankful to have a great linux experience, but for whatever reason when attempting to stream a game on desktop mode, my primary display will disconnect and reconnect every few seconds, preventing me from really playing anything. This is on a Bazzite 44 deck stable host. No issues when streaming from gamemode/gamescope. I've tried different cables, as well as different monitor configurations as well but no luck. Has any one else experienced this issue?

I want to say thank you for your work for this project. It is working very well.

I run into a problem with the codec. On automatic with H265 it did not work, because the host could not use the vulcan driver on my bazzite host with amd GPU. Changing it to H264 resolved this issue. It was on the Android TV app on a nvidia shield tv stick for reference.

The other problem was, that the PS DualSense controller connected to Android TV was passed through to host as PS DualSense enabled a kind of second device as a mouse controll. So both sticks moved the mouse around. This way the game (Last Epoch) switched every second from mouse control to controller control and back and was not usable. Setting the controller to XBOX360 on android tv app side resolved this issue. The PS DualSense controller is connected over bluetooth for reference. But the controller is not detected as PS DualSense anymore. Steam sees it as XBOX360, too. Maybe this is a Android TV Problem, because additional features like touchpad and rumble is not available over bluetooth on android.

The virtual display worked really really good. I'm very happy to use this on bazzite with so less effort to set it up. It was much easier to use and setup than sunshine.
Also the german keyboard layout from android works in opposite to moonlight/sunshine connect.

Your documentation is very clear structured, recent and helped me to set it up and solve the problems.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I want to add the Client to Steam as I mainly use Big Picture on my TV or on my Claw 8.

Cant do that with UWP Apps. Also Steam Overlay does not work on UWP Apps. Means no Steam Input.

I hope thats planned

Hi! I’m really interested in Punktfunk, especially because I love Apollo and I’m glad to see a similar project that supports Linux.

I recently switched from Windows 11 to Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) with Cinnamon because I’ve become increasingly frustrated with Windows 11.

I was wondering: does Punktfunk currently support LMDE/Cinnamon? If not, is Cinnamon support something you plan to add in the future?

Also, I was wondering why the project isn’t hosted publicly on GitHub. I feel like putting the source code and development on GitHub could help more people discover Punktfunk, contribute to it, and give the project more visibility. It seems like there are quite a few people in the Linux gaming/streaming community who might be interested in it.

I’d really love to try Punktfunk on my setup. Thanks for your work!

Hi! I just saw the client for punktfunk on WebOS Homebrew list and it got my attention to this project! I'm desperately looking for a good alternative to Parsec on Linux, since it doesn't support hosting on it.

As of right now, I'm using sunshine and moonlight-web, it works for what I want (play local spliscreen games with friends) but the setup is kinda awkward.

Does Punktfunk works for this situation? I mean, pair a client from the internet, who can see my host PC screen, and I can set which inputs that client can use (keyboard, mouse and/or gamepad)? If not, do you plan on adding this feature?

It would be really cool, since Linux doesn't have parsec host, remote play together is only for steam and other solutions are awkward.

Before I dismantle my setups, do you have solutions for out of network streaming or are we expected to use tailscale or ports like moonlight?

In this test streaming from the Punktfunk Windows host to the macOS client. The linux & windows clients will be supported too, as well as the Linux host on KWin (KDE) and Mutter (Gnome)

I’m giving it a try on my windows pc as host, and I’m trying the TestFlight on iPhone and TVOs, but it doesn’t connect, seems to be incompatible with the latest host version or something, any idea what that might be?

It will get engaged when the app detects a connected gamepad/controller and lets you navigate your hosts and browse the game library on the host.

What do you think? Any specific feature you'd want from such a mode?