LIVI is an open-source Apple CarPlay and Android Auto head unit.

It is a standalone cross-platform Electron head unit with a native, zero-copy GStreamer video pipeline and hardware-accelerated decoding on Linux (including the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5), macOS and Windows, low-latency audio, multitouch + D-Pad navigation, and support for very small embedded/OEM displays.

• Apple CarPlay (wired & wireless) on Linux — requires MFi Authentication
• Android Auto (wired) on all platforms
• Android Auto (wireless) on Linux

LIVI implements the CarPlay accessory side natively on Linux. Wireless sessions run over LIVI's own Wi-Fi access point with Bluetooth pairing, wired sessions run directly over the USB cable (no OTG required).

• main + instrument cluster video (H.264/H.265, hardware decoded, zero-copy)
• audio playback, phone calls, microphone uplink
• now-playing metadata incl. album art, turn-by-turn navigation data
• touch, knob/D-Pad and hard-key input
• day/night mode and GPS forwarding to the phone
• multi-session with live switching between connected phones

Wireless CarPlay requires a Bluetooth adapter and a Wi-Fi interface dedicated to the access point. Wired CarPlay works on any USB port.

CarPlay requires the accessory to authenticate against the phone using an Apple MFi authentication coprocessor. This is a hardware chip, it cannot be emulated in software, and LIVI does not ship or bypass it. You need a physical coprocessor (e.g. salvaged from a certified CarPlay accessory or sourced as a module) wired to the I²C bus of your board.

LIVI talks to the chip directly. Configuration (config.json):

Without a coprocessor, native CarPlay is unavailable. Dongle-based CarPlay and all Android Auto paths work regardless.

# CP3.0, CP2.0C, CP2.0B
dtoverlay=i2c-gpio,bus=2,i2c_gpio_sda=19,i2c_gpio_scl=26,i2c_gpio_delay_us=5

• Android Auto (wired & wireless) on all platforms
• Apple CarPlay (wired & wireless) on all platforms

Supported USB adapters: CPC200-CCPA (wireless/wired) and CPC200-CCPW (wired)

For a host that already runs a desktop session. Written for Raspberry Pi OS, and it should work the same on Debian or any other apt-based Linux with a desktop.

curl -fL -o install.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/f-io/LIVI/main/scripts/install/desktop/install.sh
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

This install script is not actively tested on other Linux distributions.

For a host with no desktop session. Written for Raspberry Pi OS Lite, and it should work the same on Debian or any other apt-based headless Linux, on arm64 and x86_64 alike.

curl -fL -o install.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/f-io/LIVI/main/scripts/install/headless/install.sh
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

Reboot when it finishes. LIVI then runs fullscreen on tty1 and logs to ~/LIVI/LIVI.log. Shutting LIVI down from its own menu ends the service and hands tty1 back to the login shell, so a reboot brings the kiosk back.

This AppImage has been tested on Debian Trixie (13) with Wayland, Fedora 44 (GNOME) and Ubuntu 26.04.

chmod +x LIVI-*-x86_64.AppImage

Hardware video decode (optional): LIVI uses the system VA-API driver for GPU video decode (it is not bundled, since it must match your GPU and kernel). Most desktops ship it, a minimal install may not. Without it LIVI still works via software decode. For HW decode install the driver for your GPU and verify with vainfo: i965-va-driver (older Intel, e.g. Broadwell), intel-media-va-driver (Gen9+ Intel), mesa-va-drivers (AMD).

Download the -arm64.dmg, open it, and drag LIVI.app into Applications.

When launching the app for the first time, macOS may block it. In that case:

1. Try to open the app once (it will be blocked)
2. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security
3. Scroll down and click “Open Anyway”
4. Confirm the dialog

After this, the app will launch normally and future updates will work without additional steps.

The dongle requires a compatible WinUSB (winusb.sys) driver on Windows. You can install it using a tool such as Zadig (libwdi): https://github.com/pbatard/libwdi/releases

Steps:

1. Plug in the dongle
2. Start Zadig
3. Select the dongle from the device list
4. Install the WinUSB (winusb.sys) driver

Make sure the following packages and tools are installed on your system before building. The lists below cover both building and running, including everything native CarPlay needs:

• Node.js 24.x (with corepack for pnpm)
• Python 3.x (for native module builds via node-gyp)
• build-essential (Linux: includes gcc, g++, make, etc.)
• libgstreamer1.0-dev + libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev (required to build the gst-video addon)
• meson (≥ 1.4), ninja, pkg-config, bison, cmake and the wlroots/EGL stack: libwayland-dev, wayland-protocols, libxkbcommon-dev (≥ 1.8.0), libpixman-1-dev, libcairo2-dev, libegl-dev / libgles-dev / libgbm-dev / libffi-dev / libexpat1-dev (Linux only: to build the embedded wlroots compositor)
• fuse3 (required to run AppImages)
• runtime packages for native CarPlay and wireless Android Auto: bluez, libspa-0.2-bluetooth, hostapd, dnsmasq-base, iw, rfkill, avahi-daemon, avahi-utils, pulseaudio-utils, python3-dbus, python3-gi, python3-smbus2, and pymobiledevice3 from pip for wired CarPlay

On Debian/Ubuntu/Raspberry Pi OS, install everything with:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y git build-essential python3 python3-dev python3-pip \
  pkg-config bison ninja-build cmake \
  libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev \
  libegl-dev libgles-dev libgbm-dev libffi-dev libexpat1-dev \
  libwayland-dev wayland-protocols libxkbcommon-dev libpixman-1-dev libcairo2-dev \
  fuse3 bluez libspa-0.2-bluetooth hostapd dnsmasq-base iw rfkill avahi-daemon avahi-utils \
  pulseaudio-utils python3-dbus python3-gi python3-smbus2
pip3 install --user --break-system-packages 'meson>=1.4' pymobiledevice3
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_24.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
sudo corepack enable

On a Raspberry Pi, the MFi coprocessor is powered from a GPIO, which needs one more package:

sudo apt-get install -y python3-lgpio python3-rpi-lgpio

Raspberry Pi OS ships both already, a plain Debian on a Pi does not.

On Fedora, install everything with:

sudo dnf install -y git gcc gcc-c++ make python3 python3-devel \
  pkgconf-pkg-config systemd-devel \
  gstreamer1-devel gstreamer1-plugins-base-devel \
  meson ninja-build bison cmake \
  wlroots-devel wayland-devel wayland-protocols-devel libxkbcommon-devel \
  pixman-devel cairo-devel \
  mesa-libEGL-devel mesa-libGLES-devel mesa-libgbm-devel libffi-devel expat-devel \
  fuse3 fuse3-libs \
  bluez hostapd dnsmasq iw avahi avahi-tools pulseaudio-utils \
  python3-dbus python3-gobject
pip3 install --user pymobiledevice3 smbus2
curl -fsSL https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_24.x | sudo bash -
sudo dnf install -y nodejs
sudo corepack enable

Fedora has no rfkill package, the command comes with util-linux, and python3-smbus2 does not exist there either, so smbus2 comes from pip above. libspa-0.2-bluetooth is a Debian name too: it holds PipeWire's Bluetooth plugin, which Fedora ships inside pipewire-libs. Wireless Android Auto needs that plugin because the phone will only start a session over an HFP connection, and PipeWire is what puts HFP into the adapter's service record. LIVI's package check probes for the plugin's directory rather than a package name, so it reports the gap on any distro. Everything else, including wireless CarPlay, works the same.

On macOS, the gst-video addon links against the GStreamer.framework. Install both the runtime and development packages (matching versions) from gstreamer.freedesktop.org before building. node-gyp discovers it via pkg-config under /Library/Frameworks/GStreamer.framework.

# Git clone
git clone --branch main --single-branch https://github.com/f-io/LIVI.git \
  && cd LIVI

# Install dependencies from lockfile
pnpm run install:ci

# --- Build targets ---

# Linux (AppImage)
pnpm run build:linux:arm64         # ARM
pnpm run build:linux:x64           # X86_64

# macOS (dmg)
pnpm run build:mac:arm64           # Apple Silicon
pnpm run build:mac:x64             # Intel

The Dashboard is currently in an early stage. While the IPC/socket telemetry payload already supports many signals, the UI exposes only a small subset. Widgets and layouts will be extended over time.

To push test data into a running LIVI, use the CLI in scripts/tools. The full field list and routing (Dash / AA / Dongle) lives in src/main/shared/types/Telemetry.ts.

pnpm -C scripts/tools install

# Realistic all-fields demo push
pnpm -C scripts/tools run telemetry:demo

# Send single fields or blocks ad-hoc
pnpm -C scripts/tools run telemetry:set fuelPct=4 rangeKm=38
pnpm -C scripts/tools run telemetry:set gps.lat=53.5912 gps.lng=10.015
pnpm -C scripts/tools run telemetry:set _repeatMs=1000 speedKph=90 rpm=2500

Stream resolution, view area insets, and safe area can be configured independently for the main and cluster streams. This is supported for Android Auto as well as CarPlay.

Video: 1280x720 - View Area: 0/0/100/0 (T/B/L/R) - Safe Area: 100/100/100/100 (T/B/L/R) - Draw Outside: true

Video: 1280x720 - View Area: 0/0/0/0 (T/B/L/R) - Safe Area: 60/20/350/350 (T/B/L/R)

LIVI can run as multiple windows at once, each placeable on its own physical display. The Dash and Aux windows are freely assignable and can show the Dashes, the reverse camera or the media player. Assignment is not exclusive: any feature can be shown on one, several, or all windows at the same time.

Configure each window under Settings → Window Settings (Main Screen / Dash Screen / Aux Screen), and assign features under Settings → General → Tab Settings.

Diagnostic environment flags and where to find the logs are documented in DEBUGGING.md.

See CREDITS for acknowledgements and prior art.

Apple and CarPlay are trademarks of Apple Inc. Android and Android Auto are trademarks of Google LLC. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple or Google. All product names, logos, and brands are the property of their respective owners.

LIVI is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later (GPL-3.0-or-later). See LICENSE for the full text.

Copyright (C) 2025 Lasse Heitgres

You are free to use, study, share, and modify LIVI. If you distribute it or a modified version, you must pass on the same freedoms and make the corresponding source available under the GPL. It comes with NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.