Valve has open-sourced Lepton, the Android compatibility layer built for the Steam Frame. The project allows Android games to run on Linux via containers and is primarily aimed at developers wanting to port VR-focused Android titles to Steam Frame, though other use cases are possible.
The gaming giant did not issue a formal announcement. Liam Squires-Hand initially reported on the open-sourcing. Valve states that most users will not directly interact with Lepton, as the Steam client will handle its operation. The project’s repository splits the codebase into two parts, each with a separate license. The compatibility tool itself is released under the MIT license, while the Android root filesystem uses the GPL-3.0 license due to incorporated code from other open-source projects.
Lepton’s Android image relies on several existing projects. Waydroid provides the core functionality of running a full Android system within a Linux container, with Lepton borrowing patches and components directly from it. LineageOS supplies the Android system image, and the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) serves as the base source tree.
Lepton is specifically designed for running games within containers and has been trimmed down for that purpose. All apps run as the same user, and unnecessary Android services are disabled when launching games. Valve has also previously open-sourced FEX, an x86-to-ARM translation layer used for the Steam Frame, providing developers with a growing stack of inspectable and buildable software.
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