Kodi 19+ Steamlink launcher for the Raspberry Pi 4 and Generic x86_64 systems

A launcher and updater for running Steamlink on Raspberry Pi 4 systems with LibreELEC.

Background:

This Kodi addon-on was developed to enable Steamlink game streaming on LibreELEC systems. Since LibreELEC is a "just enough" distribution dependencies for Steamlink are missing, requiring some extra steps to get things running. A simple add-on lets you install and launch Steamlink from within Kodi and stream games from your PC to your LibreELEC device.

More info on SteamLink for Raspberry Pi https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/6424-467A-31D9-C6CB

More info on Steamlink for LibreELEC specifically can be found here: https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread/14643-adding-steamlink-to-v9-0-0/

And for more general info about Steamlink: https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380

Prerequisites:

• Raspberry Pi 4 with LibreELEC (Matrix) 10+ installed
• Device is connected to a local network via ethernet (preferred) or Wi-Fi
• Gaming PC with Steam installed, connected to local network via ethernet (preferred) or Wi-Fi
• Enough temporary storage space on your LibreELEC device to install Steamlink (about 500 MB is needed)

Raspberry Pi 3

Raspberry Pi 3 UNTESTED, but might need changes to LibreELEC's config: (based on moonlight-qt documentation)

• Login into your Pi 3 using SSH
• Make config writable: mount -o remount,rw /flash/
• In /flash/distroconfig.txt replace dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d with dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d to enable fake KMS mode instead of full KMS
• In /flash/config.txt add dtparam=audio=on to enable audio in fake KMS mode
• Make config read only again: mount -o remount,ro /flash/
• Reboot the Pi 3

Instructions:

1. Install this plugin.

• Download plugin.program.steamlink.zip and store it on your Kodi device.
• In Kodi install Docker from the LibreELEC repository: Add-ons / Install from repository / LibreELEC Add-ons / Services / Docker
• Reboot LibreELEC to ensure Docker works
• Go to Add-ons / Install from zip file
• Select plugin.program.steamlink.zip

2. Enable Remote Play in Steam on your Gaming PC

Open Steam, go to Steam -> Settings -> Remote Play (move slider to right)

3. Start Steamlink

• Navigate to Games -> Steamlink
• Start Steamlink from the Games menu
• The plugin will ask you to install Steamlink, choose yes and wait a few minutes
• When the plugin has finished installing, Steamlink wil launch it
• Steamlink should start

4. Pair your gaming PC

Once your PC is recognised by Steamlink, you will be asked to enter a 4-digit code into Steam to pair Steamlink with Steam. When the pairing is finished you can use Steamlink to adjust settings for streaming and launch games. Exit Steamlink and you will be returned to Kodi.

5. Updating

When you want to update Steamlink you can use the update menu in the add-on settings and press "Update Steamlink to the latest version". The plugin will update Steamlink and will notify you when it's finished.

What magic is happening in the background when installing and updating?

Raspberry 4 on LibreELEC

Essentially the plugin uses Docker to download Debian Buster and install Steamlink and its dependencies When that installation procedure has finished the plugin copies the needed executables and libraries from the Docker container and then destroys the container. The plugin can use the copied files to launch Steamlink from Kodi without the extra overhead from Docker.

Known problems

Help, it still doesn't work

You can always open an issue if Steamlink doesn't launch/update or the game menu doesn't work. All configuration and streaming problems are probably related to Steamlink itself, you can report that on their own GitHub page: https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/

Thanks

Thanks to veldenb for inspiration.