Sunshine on Omarchy

Sunshine on Omarchy: your own personal cloud-gaming server

Sunshine is a free, open-source game-stream host that turns your Omarchy PC into your own personal cloud-gaming server — you stream your games to your phone, laptop, Steam Deck, or TV with Moonlight as the client.

TL;DR install

omarchy pkg add sunshine

Sunshine runs on your Omarchy PC (the host). Install it, then grab Moonlight on the device you’ll play on. That’s the whole install — about a minute.

Getting started in 5 minutes

1. Launch it and set credentials

Open https://localhost:47990 and accept the self-signed certificate warning (it’s generated locally on your machine). Set a username and password — you’ll use these to log into the web UI. Enable the user service so it starts with your session:

systemctl --user enable --now sunshine

2. Pair a Moonlight client

This is the only fiddly part, and it’s a one-time thing:

1. Open Moonlight on your other device (phone, laptop, Steam Deck, TV — apps at moonlight-stream.org). If your Omarchy PC doesn’t appear automatically, tap the + / “Add Host Manually” and enter your PC’s LAN IP.
2. Moonlight shows you a PIN. Four digits, right on the screen.
3. Go back to the Sunshine web UI (https://localhost:47990), click the PIN button in the top bar, type in the PIN and a name for the device (e.g. “iPhone”), and confirm.

Done — the client is paired permanently and you’ll see your Omarchy PC listed in Moonlight from now on.

3. Add a game and stream

In the web UI, go to Configuration → Applications. Sunshine detects Steam and Steam Big Picture automatically; add anything else with a name and a launch command (e.g. name Steam, command steam steam://open/bigpicture). Tap that entry in Moonlight and you’re playing — your host’s GPU encodes the video in hardware.

4. Config location

~/.config/Sunshine/ — Sunshine.conf (all the settings you change in the web UI), apps.json (your app/game list). Everything you need to tweak is in the web UI; the files are for backups or diffing settings.

Common issues & fixes

On Hyprland/Wayland, the stream fails the moment Moonlight connects (Error Code -1)

Fix: This is a known recent regression (issue #5038 — Arch, Hyprland 0.54.3, RTX 4070; bisect points to builds after v2026.323.224448). Until it’s fixed upstream, downgrade to the last working version and follow the issue thread — regression reports with exact bisects get developer attention fast.

Black screen with error code -1 using the wlroots capture method on Hyprland

Fix: Another Hyprland-specific report (issue #5018 — Arch, Hyprland, RTX 3060; last working was sunshine-git 2026.330.150440-1). In the web UI, go to Configuration → Advanced → Force a Specific Capture Method and switch from wlroots to KMS or PipeWire. KMS needs a capability bit set first: sudo setcap cap_sys_admin+p $(readlink -f $(which sunshine)) (official docs). If one capture method blacks out, the others usually don’t — cycle through them before assuming it’s broken.

Moonlight pairs and video works, but there’s no audio in the stream

Fix: Sunshine captures audio from the user’s audio session — if you run it as root, it can’t reach PulseAudio/PipeWire and the logs say Couldn't connect to pulseaudio: Access denied ... There will be no audio (issue #4660). Always run Sunshine as your user (the systemctl --user service), never as root or with sudo. If audio still doesn’t come through, check the web UI logs for the Audio capture format line and make sure your default sink in pavucontrol/wpctl is the one actually playing game audio.

HDR looks extremely dark / black-crushed on the client

Fix: HDR capture on Linux is still experimental and sensitive to compositor updates — issue #3298 documents the stream going near-black after a Plasma 6.2 update. Workaround: disable HDR in your Moonlight client settings and stream SDR until compositor-side behavior stabilizes. HDR needs HEVC Main 10 or AV1 10-bit on your encoder plus HDR enabled in the OS and the client — if any link is off, you get the dark image.

Moonlight can’t see your Omarchy PC, or pairing fails from outside your house

Fix: On your LAN, Sunshine needs these ports reachable — TCP 47984, 47989, 48010 and UDP 47998–48000, 48002, 48010 (current as of Oct 2026). If you run a firewall, open them. Also check your router isn’t blocking mDNS discovery via AP/client isolation — entering the host IP manually in Moonlight bypasses discovery. For playing away from home, skip forwarding your router to the open internet and pair Moonlight over Tailscale instead: install it on both machines, then add your host to Moonlight using its 100.x.x.x Tailscale IP.

Pairs well with / If you hate this, try

Pairs well with

• Moonlight (moonlight-stream.org) — the client. You need it; this is the other half. Steam — its Big Picture mode is the best thing to stream for controller games.

If you hate this, try

• Steam Link — zero-config but Steam-only, no encoder tuning, no out-of-home without a VPN. Parsec — easier internet connectivity, but proprietary and paid tiers gate features.

Comparison: Sunshine vs Steam Link vs Parsec

One-line verdict: If you want to stream your games on your hardware with zero feature gates and full control, Sunshine wins — it only asks you to handle networking, and Tailscale makes that a 5-minute job.

How to switch from Parsec (~20 minutes)

1. Leave Parsec: nothing to export — Parsec free is tied to your login; sign out on each device. On the host, keep Parsec installed as backup or uninstall it.
2. Set up Sunshine: omarchy pkg add sunshine → https://localhost:47990 → set credentials → enable the user service → add your games under Configuration → Applications.
3. Set up Moonlight on each client (iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, TV boxes — all free) and pair each with the PIN flow above.
4. Recreate remote access: install Tailscale on host and clients (tailscale up each), then in Moonlight use “Add Host Manually” with the host’s 100.x.x.x IP instead of its LAN IP.
5. What doesn’t transfer: friend-sharing links and Arcade (Parsec-only social features), out-of-the-box drawing-tablet passthrough, and team management tooling. Latency and image quality should be as good or better.
6. Time estimate: ~20 minutes, most of it waiting on Tailscale installs.