[Workaround found] Tabbing out of a full screen game to to do other tasks is impossible?

[Eric23]

A mild frustration I encounter when playing most (but not all) full screen games is that I can't switch to another window/program as the full screen game just pops back on top stopping me from doing anything other than play the game.

Say I'm playing a game while listening to music in VLC and I want to change the track or adjust the volume. I press ALT + TAB to switch to VLC but the game doesn't minimize, it just loses focus and I cant use VLC because the game is still showing.

If I press windows key + D to show the desktop, then I see the desktop, but if I try and click on VLC or anything else from the task bar or start menu then the game just pops back up blocking me from doing anything else. I tried running in borderless window mode, but some games hate it and windowed mode is ugly.

On rare occasions where a game has hung/crashed I can't even open the system monitor to kill the game as tabbing out or showing desktop doesn't have the desired effect. I have used CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE to totally kill everything and return me to the login screen in this situation. (not great)

If I leave a game running and the screen goes to sleep, upon returning and waking the screen the game will either have crashed or will have horrible performance or graphical glitches. Sometimes restarting the game is enough to fix the glitches, but other times only CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE will sort it out. I have since set my screen sleep delay to 3 hours to minimize this issue if I get dragged away from a game for a while. I would expect the OS to detect when a full screen app is running and disable the screen from sleeping. Ideally it should not mess up the game in the first place if the screen sleeps.

I know my pc is powerful enough to handle running a game and doing other light tasks at the same time, it seems the UI in Mint has a few bugs when dealing with full screen games.

Now I'm not a Linux pro, and have been quite happy with my switch to Mint for the last 18 months, but I still have a windows mindset when it comes to computers. I was used to being able to drop a game and leave it minimized while doing other things in windows. What should I do in this situation? I don't want to have to quit the game to do another quick task, then load the game back up again which takes ages compared to just being able to switch to another window and back again.

Is this a Cinnamon issue? Would switching to MATE or XFCE be a better choice? Though I would prefer to keep Cinnamon if possible.

Any thoughts are gratefully received.

Thanks.

Code: Select all

[code]
System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-91-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.7 
           wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: P8Z68-V v: Rev 1.xx serial: <filter> 
           BIOS: American Megatrends v: 0501 date: 05/09/2011 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-2600K bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Sandy Bridge 
           rev: 7 L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
           flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 54573 
           Speed: 3620 MHz min/max: 1600/3800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3609 2: 3602 3: 3579 
           4: 3628 5: 3673 6: 3628 7: 3575 8: 3625 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: nvidia 
           v: 470.86 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:13c2 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: nvidia resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 470.86 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:1c20 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GM204 High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0fbb 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-91-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82579V Gigabit Network vendor: ASUSTeK P8P67 Deluxe driver: e1000e 
           v: 3.2.6-k port: f040 bus ID: 00:19.0 chip ID: 8086:1503 
           IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR3011 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb bus ID: 2-1.7:8 
           chip ID: 0cf3:3005 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 385.36 GiB (41.4%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 870 EVO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s 
           serial: <filter> 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 915.40 GiB used: 385.36 GiB (42.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5 
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 
           chip ID: 8087:0024 
           Device-1: 1-1.5:3 info: MLK Trust Deskset type: Keyboard,Mouse 
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.2 chip ID: 017c:145f 
           Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 2-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 8 rev: 2.0 
           chip ID: 8087:0024 
           Device-2: 2-1.1:3 info: Logitech M-U0007 [Corded Mouse M500] type: Mouse 
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 2.0 chip ID: 046d:c069 
           Device-3: 2-1.2:7 info: Logitech G27 Racing Wheel type: HID driver: logitech,usbhid 
           rev: 2.0 chip ID: 046d:c29b 
           Device-4: 2-1.4:5 info: PCTV Systems nanoStick T2 290e type: <vendor specific> 
           driver: em28xx rev: 2.0 chip ID: 2013:024f 
           Device-5: 2-1.7:8 info: Qualcomm Atheros AR3011 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb 
           rev: 1.1 chip ID: 0cf3:3005 
           Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 3.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
           Hub: 5-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Device-6: 5-2:2 info: Genesys Logic USB 2.0 Multislot Card Reader/Writer 
           type: Mass Storage driver: usb-storage rev: 2.0 chip ID: 05e3:0716 
           Hub: 6-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 3.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 36.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 38 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 34% 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
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Info:      Processes: 267 Uptime: 3h 09m Memory: 15.61 GiB used: 3.16 GiB (20.3%) Init: systemd 
           v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Client: Unknown python3.8 client 
           inxi: 3.0.38 

[/code]

[Hoser Rob]

I doubt it'd make much difference if it was Cinnamon or not.

But you didn't specify which games you can't do this with, and that would matter. And are they steam games?

[SaraCrewe]

I had a similar problem, but was able to exit fullscreen mode with f11

[Eric23]

I had a similar problem, but was able to exit fullscreen mode with f11

Thank you! I will give F11 a go next time, I haven't tried that before. Though when I change the graphics setting in a few games it causes incredible lag until I restart the game. So if F11 causes the game to lag after switching to windowed mode it won't be very helpful. Fingers crossed.

I doubt it'd make much difference if it was Cinnamon or not.

But you didn't specify which games you can't do this with, and that would matter. And are they steam games?

Some are steam games native to linux, some are steam games running with Proton and some are games installed from CD ROM using playonlinux. If the game is full screen its practically impossible to exit to desktop and do something else without closing the game down entirely. Its very strange. Also the screen going to sleep will basically force me to restart a game as the game will either be lagged out or will have crashed.

Apart from these issues, all the games I play perform great providing I don't mess with the settings after I have set them how I want them. Its just a pain that the rest of my pc is basically unusable if I have a game running.

List of games with this problem
Ark Survival Evolved (Native or Proton)
BeamNG.Drive (Proton)
Cities Skylines (Native)
Euro Truck Simulator 2 (Native)
Garry's Mod (Native)
GTA 4 (Proton)
Planet Coaster (Proton)
Portal 2 (Native)
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 (Playonlinux)
Flatout Ultimate Carnage (Playonlinux)
Dirt 2 (Playonlinux)

Thanks for the replies, I will try F11 and report back

[rickNS]

I only play the really old stuff occasionally, and don't have any of the issues you do, but

Try opening your game(s) on another workspace, where it can stay full screen, and if you need to do something else do it on workspace #1. (just in case that is Ctrl + Alt + right or left arrow key to switch)

And just because,

a game has hung/crashed I can't even open the system monitor to kill the game

a game crashed, doesn't automatically, or necessarily mean that Mint has "bugs", again it doesn't happen to me.

Also, next time (if) this does happen try to get to a console terminal (Ctrl + Alt + F2), that rarely fails, then you can open gnome-system-monitor, and kill the offending process. At least should be able to. I don't use Cinnamon, so haven't tested that on bare metal, but works in virtual machine. You get back to graphical environment by Ctrl + Alt + F7. You can double check you are on tty7 with the w command.

[Eric23]

I only play the really old stuff occasionally, and don't have any of the issues you do, but

Try opening your game(s) on another workspace, where it can stay full screen, and if you need to do something else do it on workspace #1. (just in case that is Ctrl + Alt + right or left arrow key to switch)

Thanks for this! I can indeed switch to another workspace and use it like normal, in fact I have ark open on workspace1 while typing this on workspace2! I think this will have to be the best solution, so a massive thank you for that!

And just because,

a game has hung/crashed I can't even open the system monitor to kill the game

a game crashed, doesn't automatically, or necessarily mean that Mint has "bugs", again it doesn't happen to me.

I don't mean the game crashing on its own is caused by bugs, I'm saying that if a game crashes and I can't get to the system monitor to kill it because the show desktop command doesn't actually get me back to a working desktop where I can interact with things, that's a bug.
Also the screen going to sleep causing games to crash is also another bug. If it was just one game I would say its the game, but when its multiple different games then it seems to be the OS at fault.
Now that I know I can switch to another workspace I should be able to kill broken processes without resorting to CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE.

Also, next time (if) this does happen try to get to a console terminal (Ctrl + Alt + F2), that rarely fails, then you can open gnome-system-monitor, and kill the offending process. At least should be able to. I don't use Cinnamon, so haven't tested that on bare metal, but works in virtual machine. You get back to graphical environment by Ctrl + Alt + F7. You can double check you are on tty7 with the w command.

Without the switching workspaces trick I doubt I would have been able to use the terminal even if I managed to open it. Not that I would be able to remember the commands when the time came. I tend to avoid the terminal if at all possible because I find it hard to use. I simply don't know what to type in order to get any use out of it. Which is why I depend on the UI to actually work properly when things go wrong.

Anyway, I think the switching workspace solution is an adequate work around to the issue. I didn't even know that was a thing! I'm sure I will find lots of other uses for that
Many thanks for mentioning it! It has been really helpful.