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Streaming gaming PC to the TV with Moonlight and Sunshine

Streaming a Gaming PC straight to an Android TV turned out to be easier than expected; it essentially was much like with Steam Link in the past, and now the WiFi network is a lot faster!

Sunshine

Sunshine is a self-hosted game stream host for Moonlight; the "server" to run on the gaming PC.

Installation

Installing Sunshing is as simple as downloading the latest (not pre-release) Debian package for Ubuntu: from the releases repository, along with its only dependency (miniupnpc):

$ sudo apt install miniupnpc
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  nvidia-firmware-550-550.120
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  miniupnpc
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 17.0 kB of archives.
After this operation, 67.6 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble/universe amd64 miniupnpc amd64 2.2.6-1build2 [17.0 kB]
Fetched 17.0 kB in 0s (101 kB/s)     
Selecting previously unselected package miniupnpc.
(Reading database ... 492360 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../miniupnpc_2.2.6-1build2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking miniupnpc (2.2.6-1build2) ...
Setting up miniupnpc (2.2.6-1build2) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.12.0-4build2) ...

$ wget \
  https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine/releases/download/v2025.122.141614/sunshine-ubuntu-24.04-amd64.deb

$ sudo dpkg -i sunshine-ubuntu-24.04-amd64.deb 
Selecting previously unselected package sunshine.
(Reading database ... 492370 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack sunshine-ubuntu-24.04-amd64.deb ...
Unpacking sunshine (2025.122.141614) ...
Setting up sunshine (2025.122.141614) ...
Not in an rpm-ostree environment, proceeding with post install steps.
Setting CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability on Sunshine binary.
/usr/sbin/setcap cap_sys_admin+p /usr/bin/sunshine-v2025.122.141614
CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability set on Sunshine binary.
Reloading udev rules.
Udev rules reloaded successfully.
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.27-2build1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...

There is also the option to install sunshine.AppImage.

Either way, a bit of initial setup is required after installation; for X11 capture to work, you may need to disable the capabilities that were set for KMS capture:

$ sudo getcap  $(readlink -f $(which sunshine))
/usr/bin/sunshine-v2025.122.141614 cap_sys_admin=p
$ sudo setcap -r $(readlink -f $(which sunshine))
$ sudo getcap  $(readlink -f $(which sunshine))

$ systemctl --user start sunshine
$ systemctl --user status sunshine
● sunshine.service - Self-hosted game stream host for Moonlight
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/sunshine.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2025-05-11 00:04:25 CEST; 8s ago
    Process: 3266886 ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 5 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 3270182 (sunshine)
      Tasks: 18 (limit: 38298)
     Memory: 118.1M (peak: 120.3M)
        CPU: 715ms
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/[email protected]/app.slice/sunshine.service
             └─3270182 /usr/bin/sunshine

May 11 00:04:29 rapture sunshine[3270182]: [2025-05-11 00:04:29.975]: Info:
May 11 00:04:29 rapture sunshine[3270182]: [2025-05-11 00:04:29.975]: Info: // Ignore any errors mentioned above, they are not relevant. //
May 11 00:04:29 rapture sunshine[3270182]: [2025-05-11 00:04:29.975]: Info:
May 11 00:04:29 rapture sunshine[3270182]: [2025-05-11 00:04:29.975]: Info: Found H.264 encoder: h264_nvenc [nvenc]
May 11 00:04:29 rapture sunshine[3270182]: [2025-05-11 00:04:29.975]: Info: Found HEVC encoder: hevc_nvenc [nvenc]
May 11 00:04:30 rapture sunshine[3270182]: [2025-05-11 00:04:30.107]: Info: Open the Web UI to set your new username and password and getting started
May 11 00:04:30 rapture sunshine[3270182]: [2025-05-11 00:04:30.108]: Info: File /home/ponder/.config/sunshine/sunshine_state.json doesn't exist
May 11 00:04:30 rapture sunshine[3270182]: [2025-05-11 00:04:30.109]: Info: Adding avahi service rapture
May 11 00:04:30 rapture sunshine[3270182]: [2025-05-11 00:04:30.110]: Info: Configuration UI available at [https://localhost:47990]
May 11 00:04:31 rapture sunshine[3270182]: [2025-05-11 00:04:31.050]: Info: Avahi service rapture successfully established.

$ systemctl --user enable sunshine
Created symlink /home/ponder/.config/systemd/user/xdg-desktop-autostart.target.wants/sunshine.service → /usr/lib/systemd/user/sunshine.service

Configuration

Sunshine is configured via the web ui, which is available on https://localhost:47990 by default.

This is where clients are authorized when the try to connect (under the PIN tab) and applications are specified so they can be launched from the clients. A few applications are provided by default, including one to launch Steam Big Picture.

Moonlight

Moonlight is the streaming client to connect to the Sunshine server. The client should definitely be not on the same X11/Wayland session, that creates an infinite lopp situation.

It can be used on a different Ubuntu PC, e.g. to play games on a light NUC PC one could connect from it (client) to the gaming PC (server):

$ snap search moonlight
Name         Version  Publisher   Notes  Summary
moonlight    6.1.0    maxiberta✪  -      Stream games and other applications from another PC running Sunshine or GeForce Experience
heads-tails  1.0.13   technolog   -      Heads or Tails Multiplayer Crypto DexGames

$ sudo snap install moonlight
moonlight 6.1.0 from Maximiliano Bertacchini (maxiberta✪) installed

For an Android TV, one can simply install the Android app: Moonlight Game Streaming.