EC2 Gaming on Linux

Cloud Gaming powered by Sunshine on EC2 Spot Instances, tested with:

• EC2 g4dn instances using NVIDIA gaming driver
• EC2 g5 instances using NVIDIA gaming driver

Features

Stable features:

• Launch templates for both Spot and On-Demand EC2 instances
• Minimalistic Ubuntu Linux with Sunshine, Steam and Lutris preinstalled
• VPC with public subnet and security groups to restrict access by IP
• S3 bucket for fast backup/restore of the Steam Library to/from instance storage using restic

Experimental features:

• Debian Bookworm (without gamepad support at this time)

Prerequisites

Setup Python and install project dependencies:

python -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate && pip install -r requirements.txt

How-to set up

Deploying the CloudFormation stack the first time requires a keypair (in this case ec2-gaming) to exist:

sam deploy --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine --parameter-overrides KeyPair=ec2-gaming

When updating CloudFormation stack, passing parameters is not required and existing settings remain untouched:

sam deploy --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine

Launch spot instance:

aws ec2 run-instances --launch-template LaunchTemplateName=ec2-gaming-sunshine-noble-spot,Version=\$Latest

Launch on-demand instance:

# ubuntu noble (24.04)
aws ec2 run-instances --launch-template LaunchTemplateName=ec2-gaming-sunshine-noble-on-demand,Version=\$Latest
# or: ubuntu jammy (22.04)
aws ec2 run-instances --launch-template LaunchTemplateName=ec2-gaming-sunshine-jammy-on-demand,Version=\$Latest
# or: debian bookworm (12)
aws ec2 run-instances --launch-template LaunchTemplateName=ec2-gaming-sunshine-bookworm-on-demand,Version=\$Latest

Launch on-demand instance with custom instance type:

aws ec2 run-instances --launch-template LaunchTemplateName=ec2-gaming-sunshine-noble-on-demand,Version=\$Latest \
    --instance-type g5.4xlarge

By default, access to the EC2 instance is restriced. To update the whitelisted IP address to the IP address of the caller:

./update-ip.py --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine

How-to destroy

To delete the entire CloudFormation stack:

sam delete --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine

Manual steps on first boot

Install NVIDIA driver

Login to the EC2 instance:

./connect-ssh.py --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine

# or: manually connect to Ubuntu (noble or jammy) instances
ssh ubuntu@<IP>
# or: manually connect to Debian (bookworm) instances
ssh admin@<IP>

Wait for cloud-init to finish:

tail -f /var/log/cloud-init.log

Install NVIDIA gaming driver and reboot:

sudo /opt/install_nvidia_driver.sh

sudo reboot

Set up Sunshine

Login to the EC2 instance:

./connect-ssh.py --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine

Configure username and password for sunshine API user:

https --verify=no :47990/api/password newUsername="sunshine" newPassword="sunshine" confirmNewPassword="sunshine"

Adjust pre-defined applications to match the client's screen resolution:

# Desktop
https --verify=no -a sunshine:sunshine :47990/api/apps name="Desktop" \
    prep-cmd:='[{"do":"bash -c \"xrandr --output DVI-D-0 --mode \\\"${SUNSHINE_CLIENT_WIDTH}x${SUNSHINE_CLIENT_HEIGHT}\\\" --rate 60\"","undo":""},{"do":"loginctl unlock-session","undo":""}]' \
    output="" cmd:=[] index:=0 detached:=[] image-path="desktop-alt.png"

Optional: add applications for different screen resolutions:

# 1280x720
https --verify=no -a sunshine:sunshine :47990/api/apps name="1280x720" \
    prep-cmd:='[{"do":"xrandr --output DVI-D-0 --mode 1280x720","undo":""}]' \
    output="" cmd:=[] index=-1 detached:=[] image-path="desktop-alt.png"

# 1280x800
https --verify=no -a sunshine:sunshine :47990/api/apps name="1280x800" \
    prep-cmd:='[{"do":"xrandr --output DVI-D-0 --mode 1280x800","undo":""}]' \
    output="" cmd:=[] index=-1 detached:=[] image-path="desktop-alt.png"

# 1920x1080
https --verify=no -a sunshine:sunshine :47990/api/apps name="1920x1080" \
    prep-cmd:='[{"do":"xrandr --output DVI-D-0 --mode 1920x1080","undo":""}]' \
    output="" cmd:=[] index=-1 detached:=[] image-path="desktop-alt.png"

Set a password for sunshine Linux user:

sudo passwd sunshine

Connect Moonlight client automatically (macOS and Linux clients only)

Connect and pair Moonlight automatically:

./connect-moonlight.py --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine

Connect Moonlight client manually

Login to the EC2 instance:

./connect-ssh.py --stack-name ec2-gaming-sunshine

Determine the public IPv4 address and connect via the Moonlight client:

cloud-init query ds.meta_data.public_ipv4

Allow connection by entering the PIN:

https --verify=no -a sunshine:sunshine :47990/api/pin pin="0000"

Launch Steam

Launch Steam, Login for the first time and:

• Move the Steam Library to /mnt/sunshine/SteamLibrary (Setting/Downloads/Steam Library Folder)
• Enable Steam Play (Proton) for supported and all other titles (Setting/Steam Play)
• Run Backup (via application icon or /usr/local/bin/backup before next shutdown/reboot)

Known issues

• no gamepad support in Debian Bookworm (12) due to missing uinput module in kernel flavour cloud-amd64
• no percentage indicator when restoring instance storage from S3

Contribution

Prerequisites for development:

macOS

brew install pre-commit commitizen

Set up pre-commit hooks:

pre-commit install && pre-commit install --hook-type commit-msg && pre-commit run