Selkies

Open-Source Low-Latency Accelerated Linux WebRTC HTML5 Remote Desktop Streaming Platform for Self-Hosting, Containers, Kubernetes, or Cloud/HPC.

Google Stadia, GeForce NOW, Moonlight, and other platforms use this to stream 60fps+ FullHD over HTML5.

Install

CachyOSDebian

# Base dependencies.
pacman -S --needed jq curl tar gzip libpulse wayland-protocols
pacman -S --needed libwayland libx11 xorg-server-xvfb xorg-xinit
pacman -S --needed xorg-xkb-utils xorg-xserver-utils xorg-xwd
pacman -S --needed libxcb xkblibcommon libxdamage libxfixes libxv
pacman -S --needed libxtst libxext mesa-utils gstreamer
pacman -S --needed gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-bad
pacman -S --needed gst-libav python-pip python-gobject gst-plugins-ugly

# Nvidia Hardware.
pacman -S --needed nvidia-utils
# AMD/Intel Hardware.
pacman -S --needed libva-mesa-driver intel-media-driver

# If using full KDE Desktop.
sudo pacman -S plasma

# Base dependencies.
apt install jq tar gzip ca-certificates curl libpulse0 wayland-protocols
apt install xserver-xorg-core libwayland-dev libwayland-egl1 xvfb
apt install x11-utils x11-xkb-utils x11-xserver-utils

# If using full KDE Desktop.
apt install kde-plasma-desktop

export SELKIES_VERSION=$(curl -fsSL "https://api.github.com/repos/selkies-project/selkies-gstreamer/releases/latest" | jq -r '.tag_name' | sed 's/[^0-9.\-]*//g')
# Create a directory and download
mkdir -p /opt/selkies && cd /opt/selkies
curl -fsSL "https://github.com/selkies-project/selkies-gstreamer/releases/download/v${SELKIES_VERSION}/selkies-gstreamer-portable-v${SELKIES_VERSION}_amd64.tar.gz" | tar -xz

Streaming

Start UDP stream from an unprivileged user on unprivileged containers.

Setup assumes encrypted tunnels

Scripts below assume encrypted tunnels. If Directly exposing to the Internet (not recommended) both authentication and encryption should be enabled by default.

Encrypted Connections Preferred

Most features such as clipboard and microphones will be disabled automatically if encrypted transports are not used. Basic auth default values are the running user and mypasswd. Selkies uses UDP.

Stream KDE Desktop

KDE with Audio desktop session requires a shared DBUS so the process can communicate. See PVE Audio Passthrough.

Audio Should Appear Un-muted

Audio will be un-muted, and audio settings will display 'Virtual-Speaker'.

Audio device in KDE will report no audio devices found as these are not mapped. Audio will still work through streaming.

~/.local/bin/start_plasma_session

0755 {USER}:{USER}

#!/bin/bash
#
# Launch KDE, pipewire, wireplumber using the same DBUS, and create an virtual
# audio device.

pipewire & sleep 1
wireplumber & sleep 1
pipewire-pulse & sleep 2

pactl load-module module-null-sink \
    sink_name=remote \
    sink_properties=device.description="Virtual-Speaker"
pactl set-default-sink remote

startplasma-x11

~/.local/bin/stream_kde

0755 {USER}:{USER}

#!/bin/bash
#
# Launch KDE and stream the desktop session.

export DISPLAY_ID=":99"
export RESOLUTION="2560x1440x24"
export SELKIES_ADDR='0.0.0.0'
export SELKIES_PORT=5555
export SELKIES_ENCODER="x264enc" # Nvidia: nvh264enc, AMD/Intel: vhap264enc
export SELKIES_PATH="/opt/selkies/selkies-gstreamer"

unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/tmp/runtime-$(whoami)"
mkdir -p $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
chmod 700 $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR

pkill -x "Xvfb"
pkill -u $(whoami) pipewire
pkill -u $(whoami) wireplumber
pkill -u $(whoami) dbus-daemon
rm -f /tmp/.X${DISPLAY_ID#*:}-lock

Xvfb ${DISPLAY_ID} -screen 0 ${RESOLUTION} +extension RANDR +extension GLX +extension MIT-SHM &
sleep 2
export DISPLAY=${DISPLAY_ID}

echo "Starting Plasma & DBUS session..."
dbus-run-session $(dirname $(realpath -s $0))/start_plasma_session > /dev/null 2>&1 &
sleep 10

if pgrep -f "selkies-gstreamer-run" > /dev/null; then
    echo "Selkies is already running. Skipping launch."
else
    if [ -d "${SELKIES_PATH}" ]; then
        echo "Launching Selkies on port ${SELKIES_PORT}..."
        export PULSE_SERVER="unix:${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/pulse/native"
        ${SELKIES_PATH}/selkies-gstreamer-run \
            --addr=${SELKIES_ADDR} \
            --port=${SELKIES_PORT} \
            --encoder=${SELKIES_ENCODER} \
        --enable_basic_auth=false \
        --enable_clipboard=true \
            --enable_resize=true
    else
        echo "Error: Selkies directory not found at ${SELKIES_PATH}"
        exit 1
    fi
fi

Stream Specific Application

Quick and dirty for just streaming a specific application. Prefer Stream KDE Desktop.

~/.local/bin/stream_digikam

0755 {USER}:{USER}

#!/bin/bash
#
# Stream Digikam on port 8080.
export DISPLAY=:99
Xvfb :99 -screen 0 1920x1080x24 & sleep 2

digikam &

# Stream the exported display over selkies.
/opt/selkies/selkies-gstreamer-run \
    --addr=0.0.0.0 \
    --port=8080 \
    --enable_https=false \
    --enable_basic_auth=false \
    --enable_clipboard=true \
    --encoder=x264enc  #  Nvidia shoud use nvh264enc.