volt-gui

My AMD Adrenaline / NVIDIA Settings Linux Alternative

A graphical interface for configuring GPU, CPU, Disk, and Kernel performance settings for Linux gaming. Initially made for personal use, now open-sourced so others can benefit from it too.

Table of Contents

• What you can do?
• Build/Test Requirements
• Installation
• Testing volt-gui
• How to use volt-gui
• How to use the volt script
• Render Selector explained
• Technical References
• Contributing

What you can do?:

CPU Management:

• Governor Selection: Choose from available CPU governors.
• Adjust the maximum and minimum CPU frequencies within the permitted range.
• Scheduler Configuration: Select, start and stop CPU pluggable schedulers (requires scx and Linux Kernel >= 6.12 or a Custom Patched Kernel).

GPU Configuration:

• Mesa Drivers: Configure Mesa Drivers specific environment variables.
• NVIDIA Drivers: Configure NVIDIA Proprietary Drivers specific environment variables.
• Dynamic Render Selection: Select renderers for both OpenGL and Vulkan applications. The program dynamically sets the required environment variables depending on your GPU.
• Configure various MangoHud options.
• Configure lsfg-vk settings
• All GPU settings are automatically added to the volt script.

Disk Configuration:

• Change Disks Schedulers

Configure Kernel Parameters related to:

• CPU
• Memory
• Disk
• System
• Network
• Security

Add custom launch options to the volt script:

These will be passed to the executed program. Example:

gamemoderun PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1

Extras:

• Useful Links and Programs for the average Linux Gamer.

Options:

• Configure settings specific to the volt-gui program itself.

Create or Delete Profiles:

• Each profile has its own set of configurations, which can be applied through the program or system tray.

Build/Test Requirements:

• Python 3.9 or higher
• Pip
• The python3-venv package its required on Debian/Debian based distros.
• Linux operating system

Additional requirements in the case you build the program using Nuitka:

• C/C++ Compiler
• patchelf
• ccache (optional, for optimizing compiling times)

Additional requirements for some Options:

If this software is not provided, its options will be locked.

• scx in the case you want to make use of the CPU Pluggable Schedulers
• mangohud in the case you want to make use of the MangoHud Settings. Both the native or the Flatpak version satisfy the dependency.
• lsfg-vk in the case you want to make use of the LS Frame Gen Settings. Both the native or the Flatpak version satisfy the dependency, as long as its not the noui version.
• glxinfo its required to use the OpenGL Render Selector.
• vulkaninfo and the vulkan mesa layer are required to use the Vulkan Render Selector.

Installation:

Quick Install:

1. Run one of the builds scripts avaliable to create the application:

   Using Pyinstaller:

   ./make-pyinstaller.sh

   Using Nuitka:

   ./make-nuitka.sh

   Note: Both use a Python virtual environment to avoid system wide package installation using pip

2. Install the application system wide:

   sudo ./install.sh

   This will:

   • Copy the executable to /usr/local/bin/
   • Copy the volt-helper script to /usr/local/bin/
   • Create a desktop entry at /usr/share/applications/volt-gui.desktop

Removal:

1. To uninstall volt-gui:

   sudo ./remove.sh

   This will:
   • Remove the volt-gui executable from /usr/local/bin/
   • Remove the volt-helper script from /usr/local/bin/
   • Remove the volt bash script from /usr/local/bin/
   • Remove the desktop entry /usr/share/applications/volt-gui.desktop

Testing volt-gui:

In the case you want to contribute to the project you can use the provided test.sh script to test the changes you made. This script will create a Python virtual environment if one does not already exist. This way, you don't have to install the program dependencies systemwide.

The first time you run it, use the -c flag that will also copy the volt-helper to /usr/local/bin/, as the program requires it for appliying the settings:

./test.sh -c

After this unless you make changes to the volt-helper, or the script have been updated, just run it without the flag to avoid unnecessary overwrites of the script:

./test.sh

Note

You can use the remove.sh script to remove the volt-helper. The py_env folder should be deleted in the case you created it with your system python, and you want to use a python version that its inside a distrobox box, or vice versa.

How to use volt-gui:

Simply launch volt-gui from your application menu or run volt-gui from the terminal.

How to use the volt script:

The GPU and Launch Options settings are saved on the volt script. Here are some examples of its usage:

Native Programs:

When using the terminal or a custom desktop entry:

volt glxgears

When using a Launcher to play your game, you can just add it to the game launch options, like this:

Steam (Native):

volt %command%

Lutris (Native):

volt

Flatpak:

When using the terminal or a custom desktop entry:

volt flatpak run net.pcsx2.PCSX2

Render Selector explained:

• Select OpenGL Renderer Selects the GPU/Renderer that will be used to render OpenGL programs. Those GPUs/Renderers are obtained trough glxinfo.
• Select Vulkan Renderer Selects the GPU/Renderer that will be used to render Vulkan programs. Those GPUs/Renderers are obtained trough vulkaninfo, also for this to work on some distros you might need to install some additional dependencies like vulkan-mesa-layers on Arch Linux. More info its provided on the Welcome Window that opens once you open volt-gui.

Technical References:

Based on documentation and references from:

• Arch Linux Wiki - Improving performance
• Arch Linux Wiki - Gaming
• sched-ext tutorial - CachyOs Wiki
• sched-ext scx Github - Readme
• MangoHud Github - Readme
• lsfg-vk Github - Readme
• lsfg-vk Github - Wiki
• Mesa Documentation - Environment Variables
• FreeDesktop - Dri Configuration Options
• NVIDIA 580 Drivers - Documentation
• NVIDIA 570 Drivers - Documentation
• NVIDIA 470 Drivers - Documentation
• NVIDIA 390 Drivers - Documentation
• Linux Kernel - Subsystem Documentation
• Additionally, sometimes i had to read code from Open Source projects to check how some options work.

Contributing:

Contributions are welcome. Please ensure compatibility with supported Python versions and follow the existing code structure. Read: Build/Test Requirements, Installation, and Testing volt-gui before contributing.