Requirements

Your server

Component	Requirement
OS	Linux.
Container engine	Docker Engine 20.10+ or Podman 5.1+. See Container engines for current support status.
Disk	Allow about 20 GB for container images, then additional space for installed games, saves and user files. Check where your engine stores images as well as your homes disk.
CPU and RAM	Quasar’s services have modest overhead. Size the host for the games and number of simultaneous sessions you intend to run; the GPU handles video encoding. The 8 vCPU / 32 GB test host is a test configuration, not a minimum.

Docker Desktop on macOS or Windows, and WSL, are unsupported.

Container engines

Quasar runs on Docker and Podman in rootful or rootless mode. Rootless modes and rootful Podman remain experimental.

Podman 5.1 or later. Older Podman can’t change a container’s restart policy, which installing and updating Quasar need, so the quick start and Add host refuse it. Ubuntu 24.04 ships Podman 4.9: use Docker there, or a newer Podman.

Engine	Rootful	Rootless
Docker	Supported	Experimental
Podman	Experimental	Experimental

Supported: tested end to end. Experimental: tested, with release validation still incomplete. Tests cover rootful Docker with AMD/NVIDIA, and Podman/rootless on Fedora uCore and Workstation; this does not validate every distribution.

What’s the difference between rootful and rootless?

Rootful and rootless

Rootful runs the engine as root; access to its socket gives control of the machine. Rootless runs under an ordinary account with reduced privileges and needs extra account and device setup. See Rootless installation.

The documented Podman and rootless installation paths require systemd; Quasar on rootful Docker does not. Run one Quasar installation per engine. Compose, Dockge and Arcane can manage its seed; Portainer and Kubernetes are unsupported.

GPU

Vendor	Encoder	Current validation
NVIDIA	Vulkan Video	Verified
AMD	Vulkan Video	Verified
Intel	VA-API	Untested
No GPU	Software H.264	Too slow for practical play

NVIDIA prerequisites

NVIDIA requires the full graphics driver, version 610 or newer, and NVIDIA Container Toolkit. Follow NVIDIA setup before installing.

Network

Your browser must reach each GPU host directly over your LAN or VPN. A reverse proxy can carry the web app and API; it cannot carry the game stream.

For a default install, allow these connections from the relevant LAN or VPN peers:

Port	Protocol	Purpose	Direction
8443	TCP / HTTPS	Web app and API	Browser → control plane
8080	TCP / HTTP	Enrollment and health	GPU host → control plane; local health checks
9091	TCP / HTTP	Agent health	Localhost on GPU host only
Host ephemeral range	UDP	Game stream and input	Browser ↔ GPU host, directly
5353	UDP / mDNS	Chromium local ICE candidates	LAN peers ↔ GPU host

The UDP range is chosen by Linux: check cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_local_port_range on the GPU host. A default-deny firewall must allow it even when login works. See Firewall rules and custom ports and Remote access. Optional UDP buffer tuning is in Latency.

Your client

Use recent Chrome or Chromium. Firefox works with some limits and Safari is untested; see Browser support.

HTTPS is required for gamepads, keyboard lock and the microphone. The install steps configure Quasar’s certificate; see HTTPS and certificates for trusting it or using a reverse proxy.