I would like to request to add the following VR-related packages into the CachyOS repositories: WiVRn (Dashboard & Server), xrizer, and wayvr.
These tools form a modern, high-performance OpenXR stack for standalone VR headsets (like Meta Quest or Pico) on Linux, bypassing the need for the heavy SteamVR runtime where possible.
Packages:
WiVRn: An open-source OpenXR streaming server for standalone VR headsets. It is significantly more performant than ALVR for many users and is actively developed.
xrizer: A reimplementation of OpenVR on top of OpenXR, allowing OpenVR/SteamVR games to run directly on any OpenXR runtime without needing SteamVR installed.
wayvr: A specialized tool for bringing Wayland windows and desktop overlays into an XR session.
Why these should be in CachyOS:
Performance: These tools handle real-time video encoding and complex compositing. They would benefit immensely from CachyOS’s x86-64-v3/v4 optimizations and LTO to reduce frame-to-frame latency.
Vulkan Encoding: WiVRn supports native Vulkan Video Encoding. On modern RDNA hardware (like gfx1201/RDNA 4), this provides significant latency reduction and better frame stability compared to traditional VA-API paths. Having these packages built with the latest Vulkan headers and CachyOS optimization flags would ensure the best possible wireless VR experience on Linux.
Build Times: Especially WiVRn takes a significant amount of time to compile from the AUR. Pre-compiled, optimized binaries would be a huge quality-of-life improvement for the Linux VR community.
Modern Stack: With RDNA 4 and newer hardware, having a streamlined OpenXR-first stack is becoming the preferred way to play VR on Linux.
I second this. I am just getting into VR, and starting to use and try to understand WiVRn. I was miffed that it was not yet included in the repositories for CachyOS. Is the developement crew looking more into VR support? It took me a while, but with some effort, I got WiVRn going, and while I don’t yet keep most of my VR games on CachyOS, ( I run dual boot with Windows ) I would like to have more options here. Over all, I bet there is a better option I haven’t tried yet, but WiVRn seems to work pretty well.
The ArchWiki is often the first place to begin looking;
Why miffed?
There is a lot of software not included in the repositories. Infinitely more out than in.
Anyways for this case I am pretty sure the main reason is it is not small and there is no binary available.
What a lot of folks seem to not realize is that for the most part Cachy tends to bring packages in from the AUR that are already compiled. We would not have ungoogled-chromium in the repos if there was no ungoogled-chromium-bin. And so on.
And there is no such wivrn package available.
So even if there was desire here that might be a bit of a blocker - especially if the package would take a long time to build or is otherwise simply a bit difficult to build.
I did not mean to seem angry or aggressive with this post mind you. I’m just surprised that there doesn’t seem to be an easy path to implementing VR support in CachyOS, like there is for Steam, and it’s games. Considering the growth of VR in the gaming market, this surprised me. I’m a noob with who has dabbled in it, and likes it. I did manage to install WiVRn, through a flat pack, which can be found here: GitHub - WiVRn/WiVRn: The Linux OpenXR streaming application to standalone headsets · GitHub
From what research I have done for VR options in Linux, it seems to be the most recommended. Was there a different, and more approved of solution to the problem? I’m still trying to review the info you already shared, please be patient with me.
I have not been able to make SteamVR work under the native CachyOS package, it throws errors: … And after some of the most recent updates I have received, it no longer does… never mind.
I was using just the native package before, and it was throwing errors. I am on a rolling release of CachyOS. Something in the latest releases must have fixed it?