GameDock

An open-source Android gaming platform for Linux, written in Rust.

GameDock manages Waydroid (Android on Linux) so you can install and play Android games with one command.

How it actually works

yay -Syu gamedock          # 1. Install GameDock (~5MB binary)
gamedock init --gapps   # 2. Installs Waydroid + downloads Android image (~1GB)
gamedock play-store     # 3. Opens Play Store, sign in, install games
gamedock launch <pkg>   # 4. Play

Step 2 is the big one. First run downloads:

• Waydroid package manager (~5MB, via your distro's package manager)
• Android system image with Google Play (~800MB-1GB, cached in ~/.local/share/waydroid/)

After that, everything is local. No internet needed to launch games.

Install

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S gamedock
# or: paru -S gamedock

Waydroid and its dependencies are listed as optdepends — GameDock will install them automatically when you run gamedock init.

Flatpak (any distro)

flatpak-builder --user --install --force-clean build-dir packaging/flatpak/io.github.gamedock.yml

Debian/Ubuntu/Mint/Pop/Kali

dpkg -i gamedock_0.1.0_amd64.deb

From source

cargo build --release
# Binaries: target/release/gamedock, target/release/gamedock-gui

First-time setup

CLI

# With Play Store (recommended — downloads ~1GB Android image)
gamedock init --gapps

# Without Play Store (lighter)
gamedock init

GUI

gamedock-gui

Shows a setup wizard on first launch. Click "Install with Play Store".

Play a game

# Open Play Store inside Android
gamedock play-store

# Or install an APK file
gamedock install ~/Downloads/game.apk

# Launch any installed game
gamedock launch com.supercell.clashofclans

# Check what's installed
gamedock list

Resource usage

When gaming: Waydroid container runs, uses ~200-400MB RAM + GPU.

When not gaming: Container auto-stops after 5 minutes idle. Zero background processes.

GameDock itself: Just a CLI/GUI launcher. No daemon, no background service.

Disk space

Component	Size	When downloaded
GameDock binary	~5MB	At install
Waydroid package	~5MB	At gamedock init
Android system image	~800MB-1GB	At gamedock init --gapps
Games	varies	Per game from Play Store

Total for a typical setup: ~1-2GB + games.

CLI commands

gamedock init [--gapps]     # First-time setup
gamedock status             # Check runtime status
gamedock install <file>     # Install APK/XAPK/APKS/APKM
gamedock launch <pkg>       # Launch a game
gamedock play-store         # Open Play Store
gamedock list               # List installed games
gamedock search <query>     # Search games
gamedock backup <pkg>       # Backup a game
gamedock restore <file>     # Restore from backup
gamedock controller list    # List controllers
gamedock optimize           # Enable GameMode/MangoHUD
gamedock system-info        # Show system info
gamedock completions bash   # Shell completions

Requirements

• Linux with Wayland (Wayland or XWayland)
• Kernel with binder support (most kernels from 2020+)
• ~2GB free disk space
• Internet for first setup only

License

GPL-3.0-only