Prerequisites

✅ Prerequisites

What you need before running the Installation wizard. Most systems already tick every box — this page is mainly for checking why something didn't work.

🎮 Hardware

• A Sony DualSense or DualSense Edge controller.
• USB-C cable or Bluetooth adapter. Both connection types are supported; Bluetooth needs BlueZ (standard on every major distro).

🐧 Supported distributions

Family	Distros
Fedora	Fedora Workstation/KDE, Nobara
Fedora immutable	Bazzite, Silverblue, Kinoite (one reboot required to layer packages)
Arch	Arch, CachyOS, EndeavourOS, Manjaro
Debian	Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Pop!_OS
openSUSE	Tumbleweed, Leap
NixOS	Declarative install — see NixOS

Anything else prints a clean "unsupported" message; docs/PORTING.md has the manual steps.

🌀 Supported kernels

The installer builds the vds_hcd module with DKMS, so it needs the headers package that matches your running kernel. It detects your kernel flavor automatically and installs the right one:

Distro	Kernels
Arch family	stock linux, linux-lts, linux-zen, linux-hardened, linux-rt, CachyOS (all variants: linux-cachyos, -bore, -lts, -hardened, …), XanMod (linux-xanmod), Liquorix (linux-lqx)
Fedora family	stock kernel, CachyOS COPR (kernel-cachyos, -lts, -lto, -rt), kernel-fsync (Nobara / sentry COPR)
Debian family	any kernel that ships a linux-headers-$(uname -r) package — stock, HWE, lowlatency, XanMod, Liquorix all qualify
openSUSE	kernel-default, kernel-rt, kernel-longterm

Clang-built kernels (CachyOS ThinLTO and friends) are handled automatically — the module build detects the kernel's compiler from its headers.

Running something more exotic? Install dkms and your kernel's headers package yourself first, then re-run the wizard — the header install step is skipped when the build directory already exists.

📦 Software

• systemd — runs the vdsd daemon.
• polkit — the wizard asks for your password once; no need to launch anything as root.
• BlueZ (Bluetooth only) — the installer applies a bluetoothd --noplugin=input override so vds can claim the controller's HID channels. Heads-up: while active, other Bluetooth input devices (BT keyboards/mice) won't work — see Getting Started.
• PipeWire + WirePlumber — for controller audio (speaker, mic, audio-reactive haptics). The installer drops the config in place; standard on current distros.
• Nothing extra for the AppImage itself — FUSE is bundled.

🔐 Secure Boot

Supported, no need to disable it. The module is signed with DKMS's MOK key; if the key isn't enrolled yet, the wizard walks you through the one-reboot MOK enrollment. Details in Installation.

⏭️ Next

All boxes ticked? Head to Installation.