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At last! Users from Ubuntu 24.04 onwards that's scheduled to release on April 25th should hopefully see a smoother Linux gaming experience.

There's been an issue for quite some time now in various Linux distributions where the value of vm.max_map_count is too low, which is by default set to 65530, and this causes a whole bunch of games to crash. Fedora changed this to a default of 1048576 back with Fedora Linux 39 and now it's the turn for Ubuntu to do the same.

On the bug report, it's been noted that a fix has been committed for Ubuntu 24.04 in the procps package that will now match the value that Fedora is using.

Some of the games that can be affected by it include The Finals, which I actually wrote about with this issue, and others including Counter Strike 2, Hogwarts Legacy, DayZ, and basically anything that might be invoking a lot of mmaps. Some specific games may still need a higher value, but at least bumping up the default will leave room for more games to actually work properly.

It's such a small change, but the benefit will be huge for an overall smoother gaming experience.

Hat tip to OmgUbuntu.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc, Ubuntu
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15 comments

Linux_Rocks Mar 26
Too bad no KDE Plasma 6 in Kubuntu though. 🐌🐢
Brokatt Mar 26
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Too bad no KDE Plasma 6 in Kubuntu though. 🐌🐢

Yes but when Kubuntu 24.10 is released Plasma will be up to version 6.2/6.3/something and most bugs will have been fixed Plasma 5.27 is so good that at least I don't mind using it for 6 more months. It's just a very stable desktop. Maybe a little boring but I take stable and boring over new and buggy every day of the week
Liam Dawe Mar 26
Too bad no KDE Plasma 6 in Kubuntu though. 🐌🐢

Yes but when Kubuntu 24.10 is released Plasma will be up to version 6.2/6.3/something and most bugs will have been fixed Plasma 5.27 is so good that at least I don't mind using it for 6 more months. It's just a very stable desktop. Maybe a little boring but I take stable and boring over new and buggy every day of the week
Yeah I've heard a few horror stories about the initial Plasma 6 release, so I'm actually kinda glad to wait a bit.
etam Mar 26
openSUSE Tumbleweed already did this some time ago: https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1214445
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Hmm? While I think it's good to have beneficial defaults was there anything on ubuntu stopping users adjusting this themselves?

I'm just not sure what the big deal is as in my mind this one is just one of those "Oh, that's the issue? Okay, tweak that, done."
Linux_Rocks Mar 26
Too bad no KDE Plasma 6 in Kubuntu though. 🐌🐢

Yes but when Kubuntu 24.10 is released Plasma will be up to version 6.2/6.3/something and most bugs will have been fixed Plasma 5.27 is so good that at least I don't mind using it for 6 more months. It's just a very stable desktop. Maybe a little boring but I take stable and boring over new and buggy every day of the week
Yeah I've heard a few horror stories about the initial Plasma 6 release, so I'm actually kinda glad to wait a bit.
I can't even get the new KDE Neon to boot properly off a USB stick. It just shits out a bunch of false errors and then sits there. I didn't care enough to bother troubleshooting it beyond a couple quick things, cause it wasn't important enough for me to dick with. lol
Spyker Mar 26
Kudos to the team from "Gaming Linux FR" discord server (a French Linux gaming community) who made the initial request to Ubuntu.
eldaking Mar 26
Too bad no KDE Plasma 6 in Kubuntu though. 🐌🐢

This is an LTS version, they definitely should not ship software versions that new and unstable. You don't want your LTS version to be breaking frequently, it is the more conservative version and they don't want to make major changes to fix issues...

If you want newer KDE on Kubuntu LTS, you can get the backports ppa, I used to do it - but it is a tad more risky and I'd rather the default for total beginners is the old but rock solid version. It's not like current versions of KDE 5 are bad and you want to upgrade ASAP.
And how to manually do this "vm_max_map_count" increase on Ubuntu 22.04?


Last edited by Comandante Ñoñardo on 26 March 2024 at 2:25 pm UTC
tuubi Mar 26
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And how to manually do this "vm_max_map_count" increase on Ubuntu 22.04?

The way I did it on Mint ages ago was by adding a file called `/etc/sysctl.d/80-increase-map-count.conf` with the following content:
vm.max_map_count=16777216

You can add the line to /etc/sysctl.conf instead, or replace the value with the new Ubuntu default if you prefer. This has been working fine for me though, and won't get overwritten by an update.

Then you'll either want to reboot or run this command to make the setting take effect immediately:
sudo sysctl -p


Last edited by tuubi on 26 March 2024 at 2:59 pm UTC
Hmm? While I think it's good to have beneficial defaults was there anything on ubuntu stopping users adjusting this themselves?

I'm just not sure what the big deal is as in my mind this one is just one of those "Oh, that's the issue? Okay, tweak that, done."
I don't use an operating system so I can tweak it.

Back in the day with Fedora and Mandrake I had to mess with stuff all the time to get stuff to work. I hated it. I persevered for political reasons and because Windows sucked pretty hard in its own ways, but it was not my scene. I use an OS for it to work, so I can do things on it without worrying about it. Nowadays I hardly ever have to tweak the OS, and if I do have to I consider it a signal that I should think about switching to something that works.
  • Supporter Plus
Hmm? While I think it's good to have beneficial defaults was there anything on ubuntu stopping users adjusting this themselves?

I'm just not sure what the big deal is as in my mind this one is just one of those "Oh, that's the issue? Okay, tweak that, done."
I don't use an operating system so I can tweak it.

Back in the day with Fedora and Mandrake I had to mess with stuff all the time to get stuff to work. I hated it. I persevered for political reasons and because Windows sucked pretty hard in its own ways, but it was not my scene. I use an OS for it to work, so I can do things on it without worrying about it. Nowadays I hardly ever have to tweak the OS, and if I do have to I consider it a signal that I should think about switching to something that works.
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We are very different people.


Last edited by BlackBloodRum on 26 March 2024 at 3:19 pm UTC
whizse Mar 26
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I'm just not sure what the big deal is as in my mind this one is just one of those "Oh, that's the issue? Okay, tweak that, done."
One less thing on the checklist when you're setting up a new system?
WYW Mar 26
And how to manually do this "vm_max_map_count" increase on Ubuntu 22.04?
Liam wrote about this years ago https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/12/more-battleye-titles-for-proton-on-linux-including-dayz-arma-3-now-supported/
Keep seeing "KDE is crashy" around. KDE 6 has honestly been pretty rock solid for me since I started running Fedora 40 (just after it forked from rawhide).
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