mlbb-waydroid

Run Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) on Linux via Waydroid — and optionally stream it to your Android phone so the laptop does the heavy lifting and the phone stays cool.

BAN RISK — READ THIS FIRST

MLBB's anti-cheat (Moonton) is not rejected by this setup today, and the game is playable in real matches. However, server-side detection can happen at any time. Running a mobile game inside an emulation/translation layer is a pattern anti-cheat vendors actively look for. Use a secondary account. Do not use your main account. You accept this risk entirely on your own.

• What this is
• Architecture
• Features
• Requirements
• Quick start
• Usage — the mlbb command
• How it works
• Troubleshooting
• Streaming to your phone
• Performance tuning
• FAQ
• Documentation
• Credits
• License

A collection of scripts and configs that turn a Linux desktop into an MLBB machine:

1. Local play — Waydroid (Android 13 / LineageOS 20 in an LXC container) runs the arm64 build of MLBB using Intel's libhoudini ARM translation layer.
2. Cloud-gaming mode — Sunshine encodes the screen and your phone runs Artemis (a Moonlight fork) to display it. The phone only decodes video — it never renders the game, so it stays cool and battery-friendly.

It was developed and tested on Kali GNU/Linux Rolling + Hyprland (Wayland) with an Intel i5-13420H (Intel UHD iGPU) + NVIDIA RTX 2050, but the Waydroid gameplay part is distro-agnostic. The Wayland-specific fixes (multi-touch, wlr capture) are documented so X11 users know what does and does not apply.

┌─────────────────────────── LAPTOP ───────────────────────────┐
│                                                              │
│   ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐            │
│   │  Waydroid (Android 13, LXC container)        │            │
│   │    └── MLBB (arm64 via libhoudini)           │            │
│   │          └── rendered by Intel iGPU          │            │
│   └───────────────────────┬─────────────────────┘            │
│                           │ Wayland surface                  │
│                           ▼                                  │
│   ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐            │
│   │  Sunshine                                    │            │
│   │    capture = wlr   (Hyprland/Wayland)        │            │
│   │    encode  = vaapi (Intel iGPU, QuickSync)   │            │
│   └───────────────────────┬─────────────────────┘            │
│                           │ H.264/HEVC over LAN (5 GHz WiFi)  │
└───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┘
                            ▼
┌─────────────────────── PHONE ────────────────────────────────┐
│   Artemis (Moonlight fork)                                    │
│     multi-touch screen input  ──►  sent back to Sunshine      │
│     video decode only (no game rendering)                     │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

• One-command launcher (mlbb) that brings up Waydroid, the Android UI, MLBB, and Sunshine together — and tears them down cleanly.
• Working multi-touch — the joystick no longer releases when you tap a skill. This is the single most important fix in this repo; see docs/CONTROLS.md.
• Persistent NAT — Android gets internet automatically when the container starts, handled by a udev rule (not a fragile systemd .path unit).
• Thermal / performance profiles (cpu-profile, gpu-tune.sh) to keep an Intel laptop from throttling at 90 °C while gaming.
• Sunshine auto-config for Intel VAAPI encoding — no NVIDIA driver upgrade required.
• Latency tooling (mlbb latency) for WiFi power-save, jitter and bitrate advice.
• Reset script (wd-reset.sh) that untangles every known Waydroid stuck state.

Required

For the streaming part

Compositor

git clone https://github.com/<you>/mlbb-waydroid.git
cd mlbb-waydroid

# Install scripts, systemd units, udev rules and the Waydroid overlay
sudo ./install.sh

# (first time only) set up Waydroid + MLBB — see docs/WAYDROID-SETUP.md
mlbb

Day-to-day:

mlbb            # bring everything up and launch MLBB
mlbb status     # check what's running
mlbb down       # shut it all down
mlbb help       # full command reference

Waydroid itself must be initialised first (Android image + GApps + libhoudini + MLBB installed). install.sh only installs this project; it does not bootstrap Waydroid. Follow docs/WAYDROID-SETUP.md.

mlbb <command> [option]        (no argument = "up")

Waydroid runs a full Android 13 system in an LXC container. MLBB ships arm64 native libraries, so Intel's libhoudini translation layer is installed to execute them on x86_64. GApps (MindTheGapps) are installed so Google login works.

Android's render resolution comes from persist.waydroid.width / persist.waydroid.height in /var/lib/waydroid/waydroid.cfg read at container start. If these are set, Waydroid marks the display as non-maximized and the window is created at exactly that size. The Hyprland window must match 1:1 or mouse/touch coordinates drift.

Hyprland emits a wl_pointer.motion event on every touch-down (via refocus() → mouseMoveUnified() → sendPointerMotion()). Android's InputDispatcher then refuses the touch stream:

Dropping move event because a pointer for a different device is already active in display 0

The fix is to disable the wayland_pointer device inside Android with a tiny IDC file in Waydroid's overlay. Full explanation in docs/CONTROLS.md.

The container subnet (192.168.240.0/24) is masqueraded so Android has internet. Because the waydroid0 interface only appears after the session starts, a systemd .path unit does not reliably fire — a udev rule does:

ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", KERNEL=="waydroid0", TAG+="systemd", ENV{SYSTEMD_WANTS}="waydroid-nat.service"

Sunshine captures the Wayland output (capture = wlr) and encodes it with Intel VAAPI (encoder = vaapi, LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=iHD). The phone runs Artemis and sends touches back as real multi-touch events.

The most common problems and their fixes. A full reference lives in docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md.

Full guide: docs/STREAMING.md. The short version:

1. Install Sunshine on the laptop. On Debian/Kali the official .deb needs libminiupnpc18, which newer distros don't ship (they ship libminiupnpc21). See docs/STREAMING.md for the dummy-package + symlink workaround.
2. Configure Sunshine:

   capture = wlr
   encoder = vaapi
   adapter_name = /dev/dri/renderD128
   native_pen_touch = enabled
   output_name = eDP-1        # your monitor name

   and run Sunshine with LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=iHD (see FAQ).
3. Open the web UI at https://<laptop-ip>:47990 (accept the self-signed cert).
4. Install Artemis on the phone (com.limelight.noir) — stock Moonlight is single-touch only and cannot play a MOBA.
5. Pair: Artemis → Add host manually → laptop IP → enter the PIN shown by Sunshine.
6. Play: choose the "Mobile Legends" entry.

Ports to allow: 47984-47990/tcp, 48010/tcp, 47998-48000/udp.

mlbb latency on       # WiFi power_save off + CPU/iGPU tuning
mlbb latency status   # band, rate, ping + bitrate advice
mlbb latency off      # restore defaults

1. WiFi power-save off — single largest latency factor. iw dev wlan0 set power_save off + nmcli connection modify <conn> wifi.powersave 2
2. Use 5 GHz — measured here: 143 → 960 Mbit/s, gateway ping 5–94 ms → 2–3.5 ms.
3. Match client bitrate to the band:
   • 2.4 GHz → 8–15 Mbps, 720p, H.264
   • 5 GHz → 20–30 Mbps, 1080p, H.264 or HEVC

   Raising bitrate on 2.4 GHz makes latency worse, not better — the buffer just gets longer.

4. Kill resource hogs: video wallpapers that decode on the CPU (should use NVDEC), extra virtual monitors, and heavy background apps.

cpu-profile balanced      # boot default — prevents 90 °C throttling
cpu-profile performance   # maximum clocks while playing
cpu-profile quiet         # lowest heat (turbo off, 60% max)
gpu-tune.sh on            # lock Intel iGPU to high clocks
mlgame.sh on              # kill wallpapers + tune

vaapi_quality = speed
vaapi_rc = cbr
qp = 28
fec_percentage = 20
intra_refresh = 25
min_threads = 4

Can I use the NVIDIA GPU for Waydroid / MLBB? No. Waydroid needs a GPU userspace driver built against Android's bionic libc. NVIDIA does not ship one. Waydroid therefore uses the Intel iGPU (or your integrated GPU). The NVIDIA GPU can still be used for other things (e.g. video decoding with NVDEC), and on hybrid laptops it often already is.

Why not use NVENC for Sunshine? The Sunshine binary bundles a CUDA runtime that requires a newer driver than 550 (cudaErrorInsufficientDriver). Rather than risk a driver upgrade that could break a hybrid-graphics desktop, this project uses Intel VAAPI instead — which is also lighter on the system. If your NVIDIA driver is new enough, encoder = nvenc may work for you.

vainfo shows an NVIDIA driver and encoding fails. vainfo is picking NVIDIA's NVDEC driver, which only exposes VAEntrypointVLD (decode), not VAEntrypointEncSlice (encode). Force the Intel driver:

LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=iHD vainfo

and make sure Sunshine runs with LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=iHD too. This is why the systemd unit sets that environment variable.

Does this work on X11? The gameplay part does, with capture = x11. The Hyprland multi-touch fix and the wlr capture path are Wayland-specific. The multi-touch bug is a Hyprland issue, so on X11 you may not need the IDC overlay at all.

Will I get banned? The risk is real and the author accepts it by using a secondary account. Anti-cheat detection can be server-side and delayed. Do not use your main account.

Why does the phone stay cool? The phone only decodes a video stream; all game rendering happens on the laptop.

This project stands on the work of others:

• Waydroid — the Android-in-a-container runtime.
• casualsnek/waydroid_script — libhoudini & GApps installer.
• LizardByte/Sunshine — the streaming host.
• ClassicOldSong/moonlight-android (Artemis) — the client that makes multi-touch work.
• Moonlight — the streaming protocol/client lineage.
• Hyprland PR #4071 — which identified the touch + pointer event interaction that causes the multi-touch breakage.

MIT — do whatever you want, no warranty. See the ban-risk disclaimer again before you use your main account.

Mobile Legends on Linux · MLBB Waydroid · play MLBB on PC · Linux cloud gaming · Waydroid game streaming · Sunshine Moonlight Linux · Artemis Moonlight fork · Hyprland Waydroid · Waydroid multi-touch · libhoudini x86_64 ARM translation · Intel VAAPI game streaming · Android game on GNU/Linux · Mobile Legends cloud gaming · MLBB phone streaming