Mirroring Your Android Screen with Scrcpy

scrcpy displays and controls an Android phone from a Linux PC, over either USB or Wi-Fi, with low latency and no root required — a solid open-source replacement for tools like Iriun.

Installation

Prebuilt packages exist for most distros:

Debian / Ubuntu : apt install scrcpy        (often an outdated version in repos)
Arch Linux      : pacman -S scrcpy
Fedora          : dnf copr enable zeno/scrcpy && dnf install scrcpy
Gentoo          : emerge scrcpy

For up-to-date package availability across distros, check repology.org/project/scrcpy/versions.

To build from source on Debian/Ubuntu, the dependencies are:

sudo apt install ffmpeg libsdl2-2.0-0 adb wget \
                 gcc git pkg-config meson ninja-build libsdl2-dev \
                 libavcodec-dev libavdevice-dev libavformat-dev libavutil-dev \
                 libswresample-dev libusb-1.0-0 libusb-1.0-0-dev

Phone Setup

Enable Developer Options: Settings → About phone → tap "Build number" 7 times.

Enable debugging: Settings → Developer options → turn on both USB debugging and Wireless debugging (Android 11+).

Method 1 Usb (most Stable)

Connect the phone, accept the debugging prompt it shows, then:

scrcpy

The phone screen appears immediately.

Method 2 Wi-fi

Both phone and PC must be on the same Wi-Fi network.

Option A — legacy TCP/IP (doesn't work on every phone):

adb tcpip 5555
adb connect <IP_ADDRESS>:5555
adb devices          # verify
scrcpy -e

Option B — Wireless Debugging (recommended, Android 11+): this is the official, stable method.

On the phone: Settings → Developer options → Wireless debugging → on, then pair the device with the pairing code shown. The phone displays an IP address, a pairing port, and a pairing code.

On the PC:

adb pair <IP_ADDRESS>:<PAIR_PORT>   # enter the pairing code when prompted
adb connect <IP_ADDRESS>:<CONNECT_PORT>
adb devices                          # verify
scrcpy -e

Fully wireless, stable, no cable needed once paired.

Verifying the Connection

adb devices

<IP_ADDRESS>:<PORT>    device

Useful Scrcpy Options

scrcpy --camera-facing=front   # use the front camera instead of mirroring the screen
scrcpy -e --bit-rate=4M        # limit bitrate — helps on a weaker Wi-Fi link
scrcpy --max-fps=30            # cap the frame rate

Note

• USB is always the most stable option; Wi-Fi quality depends on the router and signal strength.
• Wireless Debugging is preferred over the legacy adb tcpip 5555 method.
• No root access is required either way.