Play Your PlayStation 4 Games Remotely On Your Linux Desktop With Chiaki
PlayStation 4 has a feature called Remote Play that allows controlling (and playing games) remotely. Officially this feature only works on Windows or macOS, but thanks to Chiaki, you can use your Linux (and others) desktop to play games remotely on your PlayStation 4. Since the game is streamed to the computer, you don't need a high performance graphics card, but there is a bit of lag.
Chiaki is an unofficial, free and open source PlayStation 4 Remote Play Client for Linux, macOS and Windows, but there's also work to get it working on Android. While not an official Sony software, Chiaki doesn't require having a jailbroken PS4.
Having its first release only a month ago, Chiaki already works very well, although there are still things that have yet to be implemented. You can already use it to play games on your PS4 from a remote Linux, Windows or macOS desktop, and it also includes features like PIN login, fullscreen mode (press F11), and it can wake up the console.
The application can be used to stream games with a resolution of 1080p for PS4 Pro users, or 720p for non-PS4 Pro users. The bitrate may be changed to any value you like, and the FPS can be set to a value of 60 or 30.
Chiaki missing, but planned features include congestion control, touchpad support (currently to trigger the PS4 DualShock controller touchpad button you must press T on your keyboard), rumble (vibration feedback) and configurable keybindings, among others. It also lacks hardware-accelerated video decoding for now.
Until Chiaki implements configurable keybindings, you must have a controller connected via USB to your desktop computer to play games. But that shouldn't be an issue since you should already have a DualShock controller if you own a PS4. But even if you don't, Chiaki uses SDL Gamecontroller by default, which supports most game controllers.
It's also worth noting that while Chiaki should work over the Internet, and not just in the same local network, the Chiaki developer mentioned in a comment that you should register Chiaki with your PS4 while on the same local network (this only being required once), and then play over the Internet:
I also recommend checking out Moonlight, a similar software but for Nvidia's GameStream feature. Using it you'll be able to play games from a GameStream-compatible PC (running Windows and having a Nvidia GeForce GTX 600-series or newer GPU) on another computer.
To run the Chiaki AppImage binary on Linux you'll need to make it executable:
What you'll need to be able to stream and play games from your PS4 on your desktop computer:
Before starting to play games on your PlayStation 4 from your desktop, you'll need to register your PS4 with Chiaki (see below). You only need to do this once!
When you launch Chiaki while being on the same LAN as your PlayStation 4, the application should show your PS4 as discovered (but not registered):
[Update] With the PS4 update to version 7.0, you will need your PSN Account ID as opposed to the Online ID that was used before. See the "Obtaining your PSN AccountID" section on the Chiaki GitHub page for details. Basically you'll need to save this script to your computer, in your home directory. Next, open a terminal and run
Once you know your PSN Account ID, double click the PS4 entry in Chiaki, and the Register Console dialog will pop up, asking you to enter your PSN Account-ID. You'll also need to enter a PIN number here -- you can obtain this PIN by going to the PlayStation 4
After you enter your PSN Account-ID and PIN, click
You may also add a PS4 console manually, by clicking the
Now to start streaming your PlayStation 4 screen to your desktop computer, double click the PS4 console listed by Chiaki. In case the console is sleeping, you can right click it and click "Send Wakeup Packet" to wake up the console.
via r/Linux (u/tausciam)
Chiaki is an unofficial, free and open source PlayStation 4 Remote Play Client for Linux, macOS and Windows, but there's also work to get it working on Android. While not an official Sony software, Chiaki doesn't require having a jailbroken PS4.
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| Playing Fifa 20 (demo) on my Linux desktop while the game is running on my PS4 |
Having its first release only a month ago, Chiaki already works very well, although there are still things that have yet to be implemented. You can already use it to play games on your PS4 from a remote Linux, Windows or macOS desktop, and it also includes features like PIN login, fullscreen mode (press F11), and it can wake up the console.
The application can be used to stream games with a resolution of 1080p for PS4 Pro users, or 720p for non-PS4 Pro users. The bitrate may be changed to any value you like, and the FPS can be set to a value of 60 or 30.
Chiaki missing, but planned features include congestion control, touchpad support (currently to trigger the PS4 DualShock controller touchpad button you must press T on your keyboard), rumble (vibration feedback) and configurable keybindings, among others. It also lacks hardware-accelerated video decoding for now.
Until Chiaki implements configurable keybindings, you must have a controller connected via USB to your desktop computer to play games. But that shouldn't be an issue since you should already have a DualShock controller if you own a PS4. But even if you don't, Chiaki uses SDL Gamecontroller by default, which supports most game controllers.
It's also worth noting that while Chiaki should work over the Internet, and not just in the same local network, the Chiaki developer mentioned in a comment that you should register Chiaki with your PS4 while on the same local network (this only being required once), and then play over the Internet:
Yes, connecting over the internet is possible if you forward the ports 9295 (TCP), 9296 (UDP) and 9297 (UDP). However for the registration I would recommend to do it over the local network since it only has to be done once.
Discovery and Wakeup would theoretically be possible through the internet too if you forward 987 (UDP), but I would highly recommend NOT to do this for now because the way Sony designed it makes trivial replay attacks possible.
I also recommend checking out Moonlight, a similar software but for Nvidia's GameStream feature. Using it you'll be able to play games from a GameStream-compatible PC (running Windows and having a Nvidia GeForce GTX 600-series or newer GPU) on another computer.
Downloading and using Chiaki to play games on your PlayStation 4 from your desktop (Linux, Windows or Mac)
To run the Chiaki AppImage binary on Linux you'll need to make it executable:
right click -> Properties -> Permissions -> Allow executing file as program (or similar; this depends on your file manager). Now double click the AppImage to run it. On some desktop environments it's not possible to double click to run it though, in which case you'll need to run it from a terminal, or see: Easily Run And Integrate AppImage Files With AppImageLauncher.What you'll need to be able to stream and play games from your PS4 on your desktop computer:
- A PlayStation 4 system
- Game controller connected to your computer via USB
- PlayStation Network account
Before starting to play games on your PlayStation 4 from your desktop, you'll need to register your PS4 with Chiaki (see below). You only need to do this once!
When you launch Chiaki while being on the same LAN as your PlayStation 4, the application should show your PS4 as discovered (but not registered):
[Update] With the PS4 update to version 7.0, you will need your PSN Account ID as opposed to the Online ID that was used before. See the "Obtaining your PSN AccountID" section on the Chiaki GitHub page for details. Basically you'll need to save this script to your computer, in your home directory. Next, open a terminal and run
python3 psn-account-id.py (or "python" instead of "python3" if the latter is default on the Linux distribution you're using), then follow the on screen instructions -- the script opens a new tab in your web browser where you must login, copy the URL after that and paste it in the terminal, then the script lists your PSN Account ID.Once you know your PSN Account ID, double click the PS4 entry in Chiaki, and the Register Console dialog will pop up, asking you to enter your PSN Account-ID. You'll also need to enter a PIN number here -- you can obtain this PIN by going to the PlayStation 4
Settings -> Remote Play Connection Settings -> Add Device.After you enter your PSN Account-ID and PIN, click
Register in Chiaki to finish the initial setup.You may also add a PS4 console manually, by clicking the
+ button in the upper right-hand side corner of the Chiaki window, where you can enter the console IP address if Chiaki doesn't auto-detect it, or if you want to stream from a PS4 over the Internet (I only tried it over the same local network though).Now to start streaming your PlayStation 4 screen to your desktop computer, double click the PS4 console listed by Chiaki. In case the console is sleeping, you can right click it and click "Send Wakeup Packet" to wake up the console.
via r/Linux (u/tausciam)
