Sunshine Streaming¶

Sunshine game streaming server setup for on-demand remote desktop access via Moonlight.

Sunshine and the GNOME X11 desktop are normally stopped. Bring them up only when remote desktop access is needed, then shut them back down when finished.

Service¶


Type	systemd user service (`sunshine.service`)
Auto-start	Disabled
Control script	`~/bin/stream-desktop`
Start order	GDM/X11 first, then Sunshine
Override	`~/.config/systemd/user/sunshine.service.d/override.conf`
Restart while active	`Restart=always`, `RestartSec=5`

sunshine.service is disabled so it does not automatically start with a graphical session:

systemctl --user is-enabled sunshine.service
# disabled

Use stream-desktop instead of starting Sunshine directly. The script starts GDM, waits for the X11 display on :0, disables screen blanking, then starts Sunshine. This avoids Sunshine coming up before the NVIDIA X11 desktop is ready, which can make it fall back to VAAPI instead of NvFBC/NVENC.

On-Demand Desktop¶

# Start Moonlight desktop access
stream-desktop start

# Stop Sunshine and the X11 desktop
stream-desktop stop

# Restart the whole stack
stream-desktop restart

# Check current state
stream-desktop status

# Recent Sunshine logs
stream-desktop logs

Expected stopped state:

GDM: inactive
Sunshine: inactive
No accessible X11 display on :0
No Sunshine ports listening

Expected running state:

GDM active with user zeul autologged into GNOME on X11
X11 display available on :0
Sunshine active and listening on TCP 47984, 47989, 47990, 48010 plus UDP 47998-48000
Web UI available at https://localhost:47990

Config (`~/.config/sunshine/sunshine.conf`)¶

nvenc_preset = 1
nvenc_twopass = disabled
fec_percentage = 10
origin_web_ui_allowed = wan
qp = 10

Encoder Path¶

Healthy startup after stream-desktop start should show NvFBC/NVENC in the Sunshine logs:

Screencasting with NvFBC
Found H.264 encoder: h264_nvenc [nvenc]
Found HEVC encoder: hevc_nvenc [nvenc]

If logs show h264_vaapi [vaapi], Sunshine likely started before the X11 desktop was fully ready. Run:

stream-desktop restart

Resolution Auto-Switch¶


Script	`~/set-resolution.sh`
Trigger	Sunshine prep-cmd on stream start
Env vars	`SUNSHINE_CLIENT_WIDTH` / `SUNSHINE_CLIENT_HEIGHT`
Method	`nvidia-settings -a CurrentMetaMode`
Log	`/tmp/sunshine-res.log`

Web UI¶

Available only while Sunshine is running:

https://localhost:47990 (or via Tailscale IP). Remote access is enabled with origin_web_ui_allowed = wan.

Quick Reference¶

# Start/stop/status through the managed wrapper
stream-desktop start
stream-desktop stop
stream-desktop status

# Sunshine logs
stream-desktop logs

# Raw service status
systemctl --user status sunshine

# Confirm autostart remains disabled
systemctl --user is-enabled sunshine