Parsec is compatible with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Desktop. It will also probably work on other Debian Distros, but please note we have only conducted tested on a standard Ubuntu build, with hardware aligning to our documented recommendations. Any issues arising on other builds, distributions, or drivers are best supported by our help channel on Discord. We do not support hosting on Linux currently.
Installing Parsec on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
- Download the installer, run it and follow the instructions
- Close the installer after 'Remove' is displayed
Login and connect
- Launch Parsec from the Applications launcher
- Login or create your account
- Add a friend via the sidebar, or login with the same account on another computer that can host, then click "Connect" on your local Linux computer to join the host computer.
Hardware Support
Parsec will run with hardware accelerated decoding on Intel HD Graphics by default.
AMD and Nvidia cards need to have a VAAPI-VDPAU wrapper setup, which most systems have by default. You may need to set your your libva to use it with export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=vdpau. You can use vainfo to verify that your system has hardware decoding enabled.
Alternatively, you can switch to the Intel hardware accelerated decoding if you switch Intel to your primary device. For all hardware, please use the newest drivers. For instance, you will need Nvidia driver 375.39 or greater.