RiftLinux 0.1.0

RiftLinux is a modified Monado, specialized for full Oculus Rift CV1 support: the headset, its Constellation sensors
and its Touch controllers on Linux, in SteamVR and in OpenXR applications, from one package. No Windows, no Oculus
software, no Meta account.

This is the first public release.

What works

• Tracking: the headset and both Touch controllers, within 1-2 points of the Oculus runtime per movement when both
  are scored on the same camera frames. The view turns with the headset's own gyro, so a wrongly placed sensor cannot
  turn the world around you.
• Sensors: measured from your movement at the first start and saved. A sensor that is moved or knocked is found
  and placed again by itself, at start or mid-game; sensors tilted alike are levelled by the headset's gravity, and
  measured again by themselves when moved too far. A sensor you add is placed by itself.
• Room scale: the headband's rear LEDs are measured on your headset by themselves and tracked, as the Oculus
  runtime does. With a sensor behind you, the headset and both controllers stay tracked all the way around.
• SteamVR: Linux games, Windows VR games through Proton, and OpenXR games. RiftLinux drives the headset itself in
  SteamVR (its own direct mode), with haptics, the Rift's headphones, the wear sensor (the display goes
  dark when you take the headset off), and battery levels.
• Picture: the CV1's true resolution (supersampling from SteamVR's own setting), Auto-HDR for every game and
  video, HDR games shown as HDR, and motion smoothing like Oculus' ASW 1.0 when a game cannot hold 90 frames a
  second.
• The Rift tab in SteamVR's dashboard (right Oculus button): headphone volume and the microphone, floor and
  height, Auto-HDR, motion smoothing, render scale, measuring the sensors again, performance numbers, and the
  headset's, controllers' and sensors' status.
• One package, nothing to set up: it registers the driver with SteamVR for every user, gives SteamVR a room, and
  points OpenXR games at SteamVR. A welcome panel in the headset explains the rest.
• Pairing controllers without Windows: riftlinux-setup pair pairs Touch controllers with the headset, the same
  way the Oculus software does.
• OpenXR applications without SteamVR: RiftLinux's own runtime, with the same tracking, picture and Rift panel,
  and a button to close the running application. Right-click a program, Run with the Rift (KDE) or Open With,
  RiftLinux Runtime (GNOME), start RiftLinux Runtime from the app menu, or run riftlinux-run <program>.
• X11 and Wayland: GNOME and KDE Plasma.

Tested on

• NVIDIA graphics, drivers 580 and 615; Ubuntu 25.04 (GNOME, X11 and Wayland) and CachyOS (KDE Plasma, Wayland);
  two sensors, and three for room scale.
• The packages are installed and checked in clean Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04 and 26.04, Debian 12 and 13, Fedora 43 and 44,
  and Arch systems.
• AMD and Intel graphics should work (Vulkan), but are not tested yet: reports are very welcome.
• x86-64 computers only.

Install

Download the package for your distribution and SHA256SUMS below, check them with
sha256sum --ignore-missing -c SHA256SUMS, and install:

sudo apt install ./riftlinux_0.1.0_amd64.deb                  # Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS
sudo pacman -U riftlinux-0.1.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst           # Arch, CachyOS, EndeavourOS, Manjaro
sudo dnf install ./riftlinux-0.1.0-1.x86_64.rpm               # Fedora
tar xf riftlinux-0.1.0-x86_64.tar.gz && sudo ./riftlinux-0.1.0-x86_64/install.sh   # any other distribution

Then plug in the Rift and start SteamVR from Steam. The
user guide walks through the first start; the README has
the settings and the comparison with other options.

Known issues

• Steam's client can crash when a flat (non-VR) game opens a window while SteamVR runs: a Valve bug, not this driver
  (SteamVR for Linux #963: the same crash, reported for the Desktop tab).
• SteamVR's compositor can crash as SteamVR quits, after the session has ended: harmless, and SteamVR's own exit code
  (SteamVR for Linux #990: the same crash with Valve's own streaming driver).
• SteamVR's Desktop tab is empty on Linux (SteamVR for Linux #693); WayVR shows the desktop as an overlay. In RiftLinux's own runtime WayVR's
  panels look softer than games, and not every controller button does what WayVR expects (being looked into).
• With NVIDIA on Wayland and a VRR monitor, the headset's picture can tear unless VRR is hidden from the driver
  (NVIDIA's bug, open-gpu-kernel-modules #992): the README's Wayland section has the setting.
• GNOME with HDR on can leave the desktop's colours washed out when the headset connects or disconnects; switching
  HDR off and on in GNOME's settings restores them (likely mutter #5083, fixed for GNOME 51).
• Pairing the Oculus Remote is not tested yet.

The README's Known issues section has the full list, including app issues under Proton.

Reporting a problem

Open an issue with the bug form and add the output of riftlinux-setup --json check and SteamVR's log
(~/.local/share/Steam/logs/vrserver.txt); say which GPU and driver you have.

For a tracking problem, record a session: run riftlinux-setup record on, start SteamVR and do what shows the
problem, then attach the recording from ~/.cache/riftlinux and SteamVR's startup log
(~/.steam/steam/logs/vrstartup-linux.txt). Turn it off afterwards with riftlinux-setup record off.