It’s beautiful, snappy, and, erm, useful. Nemo ( wiki, GitHub) is the file manager for the Cinnamon desktop environment. So a few days ago I just searched for “ best ubuntu file manager 2022”… and that’s how I found Nemo. It’s become more stable, sure, but it doesn’t match up to Windows’s Explorer or Mac’s Finder.
Nautilus seems out of place in this brave new world, like it’s still stuck in the old way of doing things. I haven’t had a dual boot Ubuntu/Windows system in quite a while and that’s a huge win. Not only is it a lot more user-friendly with a plethora of customization options, but Steam, and especially Proton, has added first-class gaming support for Linux. I remember when Linux used to be a second-class citizen in the desktop space, only used by nerds and devs who could unravel its arcane and obscure mysteries.
You can see if Feral GameMode is active using the command line, though a less conspicuous way to monitor its activity is to make use of this handy GNOME Shell extension.Ubuntu has been my daily driver for the last several years. That said, don’t expect MAJOR improvements if your system is struggling to run a game before game mode, it’ll likely still struggle with it too. Potentially, yeah! You just need to run your game using the GameMode run command, like so: gamemoderun. If you hear of a game gaining support do ping me and I’ll add it to the list. One imagines that more games will support the feature in the future. Right now the “supported” list isn’t huge, but among the Feral Interactive titles which make use of it you’ll find big-name titles like: – Once you’ve installed Gamemode on Ubuntu using the PPA mentioned above, the feature will “just work” the next time you reboot your system and launch a game that support it.
Run the following commands from a new Terminal ( ctrl + alt + t) window: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:samoilov-lex/gamemodeįollowed by: sudo apt install gamemode How do I run GameMode on Ubuntu?
To install Feral GameMode on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and above you can add the official project Personal Package Archive (PPA) to your system’s software sources.ĭoing this will get you the very latest version of Gamemode on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, direct from the command line. And since people are generally more likely to complain online than praise, this is a good sign! Can I install GameMode on Ubuntu? Sadly I don’t own a Linux machine that’s capable of running AAA titles - nope, not even GameMode can help - but there’s plenty of positive feedback on the utility on the web. See /etc/security/nf.“Ĭurrently GameMode includes support for optimisations including:īy giving games the biggest share of resources titles should fun faster, smoother, with higher frame rates, no input slowdowns, and so on. This only works if your user is permitted to adjust priorities within the limits configured by PAM. When active, GameMode “adjusts the nice priority of games to -4 by default to give it a slight IO and CPU priority over other background processes. This means that the “improved performance” isn’t on offer continuously (not in the way CPU governor controls in battery saver apps like Slimbook Battery 3 work). Okay, so how does GameMode work?Īs mentioned, GameMode optimisations adjust Linux system performance on demand.
So if you’re familiar with the Windows 10 game mode this is kinda the same thing (but also kinda isn’t).
One assumes (given the name) that Feral’s effort is inspired by Game Mode for Windows 10, a native feature that: “focuses system resources on games when enabled”. These tweaks ensure system resources prioritise the gaming experience over other tasks, like drawing your desktop background or checking for updates. Games compatible with GameMode are able to ‘request’ that a specific set of tweaks are applied to the host system and/or the game process(es) for a short period. It’s not a GUI app there’s no multi-button dashboard, no toggle-fest, and no real feedback on how it’s running.
So behold a short primer on what Feral GameMode is, what it does, and how you can install Feral GameMode on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (and up) to (hopefully) benefit from improved gaming performance on your system! What is Feral GameMode?įeral GameMode is a discreet background utility that aims to improve gaming performance on Linux distributions like Ubuntu. Asking me for help with modern Linux gaming is like asking your mum about Linux - yeah, that bad!īut I figured I’d write a couple hundred words on Feral GameMode here and if no-one cares, no-one cares: at least I can go away feeling a little more “with it” ?. Problem is, when it comes to gaming I’m about as “current gen” as a Game Boy camera.
A few readers have mailed in to ask me how to use Feral GameMode on Ubuntu.