Update and uninstall

Universe doesn’t update itself: update it the way you installed it. An update keeps your library and settings.

Updating

On Arch Linux, your AUR helper picks up each release. universe-git needs --devel:

paru -Syu

On Fedora:

sudo dnf upgrade

With the installer, run it again:

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

On Nix, update the flake input, then rebuild:

nix flake update universe
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .

What Universe keeps current

Universe updates the runners and tools it installed for your games, such as Proton builds and emulators, once a day while Big Screen runs, never during a game. Settings › Emulators & Proton can roll back an update that misbehaves. Add-ons update separately.

What’s new

The first time you open Universe after an update, What’s new shows what changed since the version you last ran. In the Universe look it opens as a window over Home, and B closes it. Settings › About opens it again, and its Show what’s new after an update stops it opening by itself.

Uninstalling

Each way leaves your data, listed under What stays.

sudo pacman -Rs universe universe-desktop        # Arch Linux
sudo dnf remove universe universe-desktop        # Fedora
curl -fsSL https://github.com/ilyasturki/universe/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh -s -- --uninstall

On Nix, delete the programs.universe lines, the module imports and the universe input, then rebuild.

What stays

• ~/.config/universe: your settings.
• ~/.local/share/universe: the library, with play time, save backups, store sign-ins and Wine prefixes.
• ~/.local/state/universe and ~/.cache/universe: logs and caches.
• The games Universe installed, in ~/Games unless you chose another folder, and your recordings, in ~/Videos/universe.

Removing everything

Caution

This deletes your play time, your save backups, your store sign-ins and the Wine prefixes, where many Windows games keep their saves. Cloud saves stay with their store.

After uninstalling, delete Universe’s folders:

rm -rf ~/.config/universe ~/.local/share/universe ~/.local/state/universe ~/.cache/universe

Delete the games and recordings too if you want them gone, but look first: another launcher may install into the same games folder. On GNOME, gnome-extensions uninstall universe@ilyasturki.github.io removes the Shell extension.