Installation

The Phantom Pad Server is a lightweight background process that receives input from the mobile app and emulates a game controller on your PC. Follow the instructions for your platform below.

Windows

Installer (recommended)

Go to the latest release and download the phantompad-x.x.x-setup.exe file.
Run the installer and follow the prompts.
The installer will:
- Install and start the Phantom Pad background service.
- Automatically install the ViGEmBus driver required for controller emulation.
- Add the firewall rule to allow the server to work properly
No further configuration is needed. The service starts automatically with Windows.

Portable (.exe)

Use this if you don’t want to install anything system-wide.

Download the portable .exe from the releases page.
Install the ViGEmBus driver manually — download ViGEmBus_<version>.exe from the ViGEmBus releases page and run it.
Launch phantompad.exe. It will run in the foreground until closed.

Note: The portable version does not run as a background service and will not start automatically on boot.

Firewall

If you chose to skip the installer, Windows Firewall may prompt you to allow Phantom Pad through the firewall. Allow access on private networks so the mobile app can discover and connect to your PC.

If you dismissed the prompt or blocked it by accident, you can add a manual rule:

Open Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security.
Add an Inbound Rule for phantompad.exe, allowing UDP on port 35700.

Linux

Prebuilt Binary

Download the prebuilt binary for your architecture from the releases page.
Make it executable:
Terminal window
```
chmod +x phantompad
```
The server uses the uinput kernel subsystem. Make sure the module is loaded:
Terminal window
```
sudo modprobe uinput
```

Your user needs write access to /dev/uinput. Either run the server with sudo, or add a udev rule (recommended):

echo 'KERNEL=="uinput", GROUP="input", MODE="0660"' | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-uinput.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger
sudo usermod -aG input $USER

Then log out and back in for the group change to take effect.

Run the server:
Terminal window
```
./phantompad
```

systemd Service

To have the server start automatically in the background:

Complete the prebuilt binary steps above.
Copy the binary to a permanent location, e.g. /usr/local/bin/:
Terminal window
```
sudo cp phantompad /usr/local/bin/
```
Copy the service file from the repository (or download it separately):
Terminal window
```
sudo cp phantompad.service /etc/systemd/system/
```

Reload systemd and enable the service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now phantompad

Check that it’s running:
Terminal window
```
sudo systemctl status phantompad
```

Firewall (Linux)

If you’re running a firewall (e.g. ufw), allow UDP traffic on the server’s port:

sudo ufw allow 35700/udp

Mobile App

Regardless of platform, install the Phantom Pad app on your Android device from the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.prevter.phantompad

Make sure your PC and phone are on the same Wi-Fi network before launching the app.