Install

Universe runs on x86_64 Linux with systemd 250 or newer, on cgroups v2. You get two apps on the same library: Universe Big Screen, which you drive with a controller, and Universe Desktop, for the mouse and the keyboard.

Install gamescope too. Without it, games open on your desktop, there’s no dock over a game, and the Universe session can’t start.

Arch Linux

From the AUR: universe builds the latest release, universe-bin installs it prebuilt, and universe-git builds main. Add universe-desktop (or its -bin or -git) for Universe Desktop.

paru -S universe universe-desktop

gamescope, MangoHud, gpu-screen-recorder and game-devices-udev are optional dependencies: install the ones you want.

Fedora

Fedora 44 and newer, from COPR:

sudo dnf copr enable ilyasturki/universe
sudo dnf install universe universe-desktop

SteamOS, Bazzite and other distributions

The installer puts Universe in ~/.local. It needs Python 3.11 to 3.14, and SDL3 for your controller: SteamOS 3.8 and Bazzite have it, Ubuntu 24.04 and older don’t.

curl -fsSL https://github.com/ilyasturki/universe/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

It asks for your password once, to set up your controllers and the Universe entry on the login screen. On a Steam Deck, set a password first.

From a git checkout, ./install.sh builds it instead, with cargo.

Nix

The flake has a NixOS module for the system side and a Home Manager module for the apps:

inputs.universe.url = "github:ilyasturki/universe";

# NixOS configuration
imports = [ inputs.universe.nixosModules.default ];
programs.universe.enable = true;
programs.universe.session.enable = true; # optional: the Universe login session

# Home Manager configuration
imports = [ inputs.universe.homeModules.default ];
programs.universe.enable = true;

With programs.universe.settings set, your settings come from Nix, and the app can’t change them. Nix options lists every option.

After installing

On GNOME, run this once, then log out and back in. The installer runs it for you; the Arch and Fedora packages don’t.

universe setup

It installs and turns on the Universe Shell extension, which screenshots, window recording and the on-screen messages use.

Then open Universe Big Screen from your app menu. On an empty library, the first run finds your games.