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):
Double click the discovered PS4 in the Chiaki user interface, and a window will pop up, asking you to enter the PSN ID and PIN. The PSN ID (username) here means your Online ID, and not your PSN login. In case you don't know or remember (like me) your PSN Online ID, go to this link and login, click on the PSN Profile link in the sidebar and you'll find your Online ID there.
To get the PIN than needs to be entered here you'll need to open your PlayStation 4 settings, scroll down to
After you enter your PSN Online 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):
Double click the discovered PS4 in the Chiaki user interface, and a window will pop up, asking you to enter the PSN ID and PIN. The PSN ID (username) here means your Online ID, and not your PSN login. In case you don't know or remember (like me) your PSN Online ID, go to this link and login, click on the PSN Profile link in the sidebar and you'll find your Online ID there.
To get the PIN than needs to be entered here you'll need to open your PlayStation 4 settings, scroll down to
Remote Play Connection Settings, click Add Device and you'll see a pin code on the screen.After you enter your PSN Online 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)
