Installing OpenVR Plugin

In order to SlimeVR to communicate with SteamVR, you'll need to install an OpenVR plugin into your Steam installation. On Windows, this happens automatically with SlimeVR's installer. On Linux, this needs to be done manually.

If you don't plan to use SlimeVR with SteamVR, this section can be skipped.

1. Download

The latest OpenVR plugin can be downloaded here, or obtained by downloading slimevr-openvr-driver-x64-linux.zip from the latest SlimeVR-OpenVR-Driver release.

2. Identify target directory

You'll then need to identify the root directory of the Steam installation on your system. In most cases, it should be located at ~/.steam/steam/.

From here, you'll need to navigate to steamapps/common/SteamVR/drivers/. For most common cases, this will result in a final path of ~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SteamVR/drivers/.

This is where you will be installing the plugin.

3. Extract and install

Extract the archive you downloaded in step 1. This should give you a bunch of files and folders nested in a root slimevr folder. Simply move the slimevr folder into the drivers directory identified in step 2, and the plugin should now be installed. If done correctly, you should now have a steamapps/common/SteamVR/drivers/slimevr/bin/linux64/ folder (among other things).

You will need to restart SteamVR for changes to take effect, though you likely won't notice any difference until you have SlimeVR trackers set up.

Installing Java

The SlimeVR Server depends on Java 17, so you'll need to install it on your system in a way that SlimeVR can access.

Option 1: Instal Java globally

The simplest and most straight-forward way to setup Java is to install it through your distro's package manager. The specific package name will vary distro to distro, but it will most likely be listed as "openjdk", and you'll most likely want the jre (though jdk will work fine).

Ubuntu:

sudo apt install openjdk-17-jre

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S jre17-openjdk

Once installed, the SlimeVR AppImage should automatically detect and use this version of Java to run the internal server.

Option 2: Portable Java

An alternative method to installing Java globally is to download and extract a portable version of the Java runtime.

1. Download Java 17 JRE archive

You can press this button to download the latest Adoptium JRE archive directly:

Or you can download it yourself from the releases page here:

https://adoptium.net/temurin/releases/?version=17

2. Extract and rename

Extract the downloaded archive (ex. OpenJDK17U-jre_x64_linux_hotspot_17.0.5_8.tar.gz) to get a folder named something like jdk-17.0.5+8-jre.
Rename the extracted folder (ex. jdk-17.0.5+8-jre) to jre, such that the directory structure looks something like /jre/bin/java.

3. Bundle with SlimeVR

In order for SlimeVR to locate the portable version of Java, you will need to include it in the same directory as the AppImage. When using the all-in-one AppImage under the "Running SlimeVR" section of this guide, your folder structure should look like so:

Parent Directory
    |- /jre/bin/java
    |- /SlimeVR-amd64.appimage

Running SlimeVR

The recommended way to run SlimeVR on Linux (in a desktop environment) is to use the standalone AppImage executable. This comes with the server and GUI both bundled into one.

The latest AppImage can be downloaded here, or obtained by downloading SlimeVR-amd64.appimage from the latest SlimeVR-Server release.

For most common Linux distros, you should then be able to start SlimeVR by simply executing the AppImage. Config and logs will be stored in ~/.config/dev.slimevr.SlimeVR/

Serial Console

In able to gain access to the Serial Console on Linux, you will need to grant your user account access to PlatformIO devices. Without the correct access, the Serial Console will continue to display "Connection to serial lost, Reconnecting..." after a SlimeVR tracker has been connected via USB.

The recommended way to gain access is by installing PlatformIO's udev rules. This can be done using the instructions on this page: https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/core/installation/udev-rules.html

Firewall Rules

On Linux, SlimeVR does not automatically add any firewall rules. If you have a firewall installed, you will need to add the rules manually yourself.

You will need to open ports on:

35903/udp
6969/udp
21110/tcp

Source: firewall.bat

Legacy Setup

If the above AppImage works for you, then you can disregard everything in this section.

If for some reason the above setup does not work for you, then you may need to retrieve and run the SlimeVR components manually.

SlimeVR Server

You can download the latest required slimevr.jar file from this link:

https://github.com/SlimeVR/SlimeVR-Server/releases/latest/download/slimevr.jar

SlimeVR GUI

You can download the latest required GUI from here:

https://github.com/SlimeVR/SlimeVR-Server/actions/workflows/build-gui.yml?query=branch%3Amain+is%3Asuccess

1. Open the latest workflow run

Click on the title of the latest workflow run, this is simply an example and the exact one at the top will change.

2. Download the desired artifact

Once you have the workflow run open, you can find a list of built artifacts. The simplest to use is the AppImage build since it includes all required dependencies and can be run very easily.

You must be logged into a GitHub account in order to download build artifacts.

3. Extract the GUI AppImage/Deb

Once you have the file downloaded (ex. SlimeVR-GUI-AppImage.zip), extract it to get a file like slimevr-ui_0.0.0_amd64.AppImage.

Setting up the install folder

To most easily use the program, you'll need to have things structured in a specific way.

Make a new folder to contain your installation, name it whatever you want (ex. SlimeVR Server).
Place the SlimeVR Server, SlimeVR GUI, and optional Java JRE components you downloaded into the folder you made

Example of the final directory structure:

/SlimeVR Server/
    |- /jre/bin/java  (if using portable Java)
    |- /slimevr.jar
    |- /slimevr-ui_0.0.0_amd64.AppImage

Running the program

Once everything is all set up, all you need to do to run it is execute the AppImage and it should run everything else on its own.

Note: Only tested on Debian and Ubuntu, if you use Arch please ping lordbagel42 in the SlimeVR Discord server.

Created by butterscotch.v

SlimeVR Docs