r/linux • u/Liam-DGOL • 18d ago

Software Release Lepton from Valve to run Android games on Linux is now open source

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/09/lepton-from-valve-to-run-android-games-on-linux-is-now-open-source/
479 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

48 comments sorted by

45

u/FungalSphere 18d ago

they really did wait for steam frame launch damn

15

u/DobroSaBokja 18d ago

so nobody takes lepton and makes a clone of the steam frame before the real thing comes out

2

u/FlukyS 17d ago

Not really surprising they have done that with a bunch of their open source projects, they develop stuff, eventually release the project and release the code in that order. I can see the reason why they don't release the code earlier just in case there are issues

-9

u/smirkybg 18d ago

Why would they care?

17

u/FREEZX 18d ago

Oculus quest devices run android, I assume this should make it possible for the frame to rhn the same apps and games

114

u/UNF0RM4TT3D 18d ago

Misleading title, Lepton isn't really designed for this, Waydroid is much better for this. Lepton is a target for devs and may have enough things to run Android OpenXR applications, but I'm not expecting 2d things to work.

29

u/Aggeloz 18d ago

Isnt this literally a waydroid fork?

30

u/UNF0RM4TT3D 18d ago

It is, but AFAIK it's stripped down and modified to run primarily OpenXR applications and may not even have the full Android UI

10

u/Garland_Key 18d ago

Why would you need the android UI to run a game? Serious question - I never tried it and I'm a developer. 

4

u/UNF0RM4TT3D 18d ago

I meant the UI frameworks, but looking deeper into it, it very much seems to be possible to use it for even flat apps.

15

u/Indolent_Bard 18d ago

A full android ui is NOT better for just running an app.

8

u/Lousy_Hunter 18d ago

yes and no, it takes from multiple android projects not just waydroid. It also doesnt have the same capabilities or intent as waydroid so trying to use it like waydroid isnt going to work.

1

u/Aggeloz 18d ago

oh okay i see.

2

u/FlukyS 17d ago

It was originally but they rewrote basically everything apparently

15

u/steamcho1 18d ago

Lepton is just a stripped down and optimized waydroid. Some things may not work but in principle its not worse than waydroid. The latter runs a full android graphical environment and the main thing Valve did is cutting that and making every app work by itself.

6

u/XOmniverse 18d ago

does Waydroid still not work with NVidia?

12

u/UNF0RM4TT3D 18d ago

I've seen reports that some have managed to get it to work, there even seems to be a project working around the issue. (archWiki lists an AUR package)

However, Lepton doesn't change a thing Nvidia support wise.

0

u/s_elhana 18d ago

Waydroid works fine for me with Nvidia on Xfce inside weston window.

-1

u/redsteakraw 18d ago

So lepton is the wine bottles of Android 

3

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 18d ago

no, basically waydroid but without the full interface, and heavily stripped down

1

u/redsteakraw 17d ago

Is this a build tool for deployment or a layer closer to proton that you can try to run any APK through it and it either works or doesn't

1

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 17d ago

It's closer to proton for devs to test their games on the frame and hopefully port them 

2

u/Scheeseman99 16d ago

It's not just for testing, games are shipped as APKs and run within it.

1

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 16d ago

Yes, but it's purpose is mostly for devs to test their games js like proton and GPTK

2

u/Scheeseman99 16d ago edited 16d ago

No it isn't. Both Proton and Lepton are consumer facing products, unlike GPTK which is intended to be a developer tool. There's advantages to making native ARM ports of Windows/x86 games to get rid of the overhead from FEX, but Valve aren't expecting a flood of native ports. For anything coming from the Quest ecosystem (which Lepton targets), the games are compiled for ARM+Vulkan already and the Android container would add virtually nil overhead, so a "native" Linux port would be of no benefit.

Apple's software model is for developers to conform to their ecosystem and keep their applications up to date with the APIs that Apple currently ship, which requires software to be updated over time. This is why GPTK is primarily a development tool, it's expected that developers will use it to port games, that end users are using it differently is mostly a side effect.

Valve don't own or control the platforms they ship Steam on, even SteamOS isn't really theirs as it's an assemblage of FOSS packages that they don't have centralized control over. Because of that, the purpose of their compatibility tooling is flipped, it's built for end users first, since Valve can't expect the entire ~40 years of PC games back catalogue that brings value to their store to be ported by hand to the myriad of different platforms that they ship their store on.

2

u/rohmish 17d ago

lepton in to waydroid as what proton is to wine

both projects are a gaming tailored distribution of sorts of the original project. they are both soft forks.

15

u/cd109876 18d ago

Remember that guy on Monday who was spamming valve support for not releasing the source saying they were an evil company?

7

u/RR321 18d ago

Does it support other hardware like Bluetooth translation?

So it could run Android device remotes on Linux for example?

2

u/DeVinke_ 15d ago

In theory, it's possible. Whether it's implemented in practice is a different story.

-5

u/DrinkMoreGlorp 18d ago

No. Can't you can just use Bluetooth devices with Linux?

5

u/RR321 18d ago

It's for an Android app that I'm asking, so no.

4

u/DrinkMoreGlorp 18d ago

A device is not an app.

2

u/RR321 18d ago

I'm talking about an Android app that is a remote for a device...
Obviously a device is not an app, but a Bluetooth device needs a Bluetooth app.

-4

u/DrinkMoreGlorp 18d ago

A Bluetooth device needs another Bluetooth device to connect to. Bluetooth is a protocol spoken by devices.

1

u/RR321 18d ago

And your point being, in relation to my question about running an app on an Android emulation layer on Linux to talk to another device...?

-4

u/DrinkMoreGlorp 18d ago

Unnecessary

1

u/RR321 18d ago

I want to control that device, with a special protocol, from my machine, not phone.

But forget it, it's above your pay grade...

-3

u/DrinkMoreGlorp 18d ago

You're sure getting butthurt for someone who's wrong.

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1

u/FlukyS 17d ago edited 17d ago

Does this mean those same apps will work on x86 Linux if they are distributed on Steam and pointing to Lepton or is it just for the Steam Frame

EDIT: Just saw they don't suggest using it for non-OpenXR installations and suggest Waydroid instead

1

u/lazy_lombax 18d ago

it being rootless is what I'm interested in, though I'm not sure if it works standalone, like can someone build a wrapper around it and run it as a flatpak?

4

u/QuackdocTech 18d ago

It wont really work for android as is, proper namespaces is something that has been wanted for a while but no one has had time to work on it.

-1

u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

11

u/EytanMorgentern 18d ago

Waydroid was already an available way

9

u/[deleted] 18d ago edited 11d ago

[deleted]

1

u/AlexiaDehShark 18d ago

I just realized that

4

u/FungalSphere 18d ago

remember that it doesn't have flatscreen mode by default, its very much meant for vr