Tips or advice and guides for using mangohud or goverlay

Hi friends.

I need to see my fps, gpu, cpu, temperatures, etc., when playing games from steam, lutris and heroic.

I need to do this to see which version of wine-ge, proton-ge and launcher (steam, lutris or heroic) works better and with better fps for X game.

Is it better to use mangohud without GUI or goverlay with GUI? (I ask this because I have seen that there are programs that work better without GUI).

For now I have downloaded the version with GUI (goverlay) until I get a response, and I saw a couple of guides, and I put the command mangohud %command% in the launcher of a steam game.

But it seems that I did something wrong because, because the screen flashes and the numbers disappear from time to time.

Can you tell me which of the two programs you use and how you have it configured so that it works correctly or what guides you use?

Thanks in advance!

I use goverlay to easily configure mangohud and then mangohud %command% on a per game basis in steam game launch options. Sometimes mangohud --dlsym %command% is needed for OpenGL games. Basically mangohud can only be used ‘without GUI’ since there is no GUI for mangohud. Goverlay is just a GUI for managing the mangohud configs and not running or launching mangohud.

Also there are keyboard shortcuts for launching and closing mangohud in game. Shift_R+F12 to toggle the hud on or off. Shift_L+F2 to toggle logging. Logs can be uploaded to FlightlessMango.com for some nice graphs.

Here are some commands to check if mangohud is properly installed:

mangohud glxgears
mangohud vkcube

Make sure to have lib32-mangohud also installed.

Maybe take a look at the gaming guide in the forum to make sure things are properly set up to run games in the first place:

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I read your OP again. You say you downloaded just goverlay? You still need mangohud and lib32-mangohud even if using goverlay to manage configs.

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Thank you very much Friend. I installed only goverlay, because I thought I would install the mangohud dependency alongside goverlay.

How can I check if I have that dependency/library installed?

I have executed these 3 commands, but I don’t remember what the command was to search for packages installed on my EOS:

yay -Q lib32-mangohud
error: package 'lib32-mangohud' was not found
yay -Qi lib32-mangohud
error: package 'lib32-mangohud' was not found

yay -Qs lib32-mangohud

Thank you very much friend. So, it means that when I need to install a GUI of a program, it is always advisable to install the program first, and then the GUI, right?

I thought that the GUIs installed the main package as a mandatory dependency or something like that, but it seems that there are missing libraries, because I don’t have that lib32 file, I think.

It’s not installed by default AFAIK. You can install with yay -S lib32-mangohud
To search I always use just yay appname, for example yay lib32-mangohud and it should show ‘(Installed)’ if already on your system. It’s two less characters to type than yay -Q and then gives the option to install so don’t have to type even more.

You are correct goverlay installs mangohud as an ‘optional dependancy’ but they are in fact two different programs by two diff. developers. I only discovered goverlay after I installed mangohud so wasn’t aware it’s now an ‘optional dependancy’ of goverlay.
However, you can use mangohud without goverlay. Mangohud is not dependant on goverlay.

Normally you would install the program only and not its dependencies/‘optional dependancy’ first. Normally the GUI and program are one unless its different programs/developers/etc. For example, you install firefox you get the whole package compared to something like rsync. I used to always use rsync which is command line. Then switched over to Grsync which is a GUI designed by someone else but still uses rsync as ‘back end’. In fact there are many different ‘front ends’ for rsync.
Hope this explains it or if someone else can provide input.

Edit1: If you ever uninstall goverlay then mangohud will stay behind. You would need to uninstall that seperately.
Edit2: mangohud is an ‘optional dependancy’ of goverlay and not dependant (a dependancy) on it.

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Thank you very much friend, I already installed the lib32 version.

And for the temperatures to appear from the goverlay version, do I always have to enter the “mangohud %command%” command in the game launcher, like the default version without GUI? Or does just opening the program work?

(just out of curiosity, since perhaps the goverlay only serves to configure the aesthetics of the temperatures, but perhaps the commands are still the same as those of mangohud and it only works if I enter them)

So, as you say, they are 2 separate programs. And if I decide to use Goverlay, it is not necessary to install it first, I simply install goverlay and everything should work correctly.

But in the case of the lib32-mangohud version, will it be compatible with goverlay? Since lib32-mangohud is the 32-bit version of mangohud, it is not the 32-bit version of goverlay.

I think I might be confused or something may get lost in translation since I am not an English native speaker. But here goes my best attempt.

Don’t have to enter that for temperatures to appear. You enter that to execute the mangohud overlay. Customising the HUD info like temperatures, FPS, usage, etc. is configured either directly in mangohud config files or via Goverlay. Obviously there are exceptions like if you enable it globally but I wouldn’t recommend that.

Since temperature seems very important to you, I would recommend taking a look at CoreCtrl and if you have KDE then definitely System Monitor. I set up KDE System Monitor to to CPU, GPU, RAM & HDD usage and temps, etc. Takes a while to config and you might need to play with pages/plugins but it’s a very powerful tool that shows info without having to run games to see it as is the case with mangohud. Other better options likely exist but it works for me.

I use it in combo with CoreCtrl to adjust my fan curves for GPU. It also shows all the standard info along with even power consumption like power wattage and volts. But definitely read up on it since CoreCtrl has functionality to overclock your hardware which could cause potential damange if used incorrectly.

Haven’t really thought about it in such depth if I have to be honest and it’s not my area of experties. AFAIK, they use the same config. But if you call mangohud %command% it should automatically use mangohud for x64 games and lib32-mangohud for x86 games.

I would definitely recommend further reading on the subject. Take a look at the ArchWiki and GitHub pages for the respective projects. This is the fun part of the Linux journey.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/MangoHud

Personally I don’t care much for reading so YouTube to the rescue. However, as you might have found already - there are endless guides on the subject and a lot of conflicting information. My best advice would be to limit your research scope to Arch and Steam.

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Here is an AI generated explanation of mangohud and goverlay:

MangoHud and GOverlay serve different purposes in the realm of Linux gaming overlays. MangoHud is a Vulkan and OpenGL overlay designed for monitoring FPS, temperatures, CPU/GPU load, and more. It provides users with detailed performance metrics during gameplay, offering essential information for optimizing gaming experiences on Linux systems. On the other hand, GOverlay is an application that simplifies the configuration of MangoHud settings by providing a user-friendly interface with checkboxes and sliders. GOverlay essentially acts as a management tool for adjusting MangoHud settings without the need to manually edit configuration files or set environment variables. In summary, MangoHud is the performance monitoring overlay itself, while GOverlay is a companion application that streamlines the process of customizing and managing MangoHud’s settings on Linux systems.

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Thank you very much friend, everything was clear to me about mangohud and goverlay. Also, don’t worry, it’s not your fault, it’s just me who is slow to understand things. Also, I’m using Google Translate, that’s why I sometimes speak strangely. xP

Regarding temperatures, yes, it is a good idea since they interest me. I can use mangohud just to see the fps of the games. And kde system monitor to see global temperatures while gaming (I just have to minimize and see the temperatures).

Just like you said, my kde system monitor doesn’t have temperatures (I use plasma-systemmonitor 6.0.3-1 (plasma)). So I’ll look for a tutorial and add them.

Thanks again for all the help friend!

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