#1067097 gamemode-daemon: Fails to Set CPU Governor - pkexec not authorized

Package:
gamemode-daemon
Source:
gamemode-daemon
Description:
Optimise Linux system performance on demand (daemon)
Submitter:
Jake Piotrowski
Date:
2026-07-05 10:07:01 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1067097#5
Date:
2024-03-18 12:22:53 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

gamemoded -t fails with a message of "ERROR: Governor was not set to
performance (was actually powersave)!".

This is after installing using the meta package of "gamemode". From journalctl
it appears the package is missing some polkit rules:

Mar 18 07:11:18 jakepiot gamemoded[3930]: ERROR: External process failed with
exit code 127
Mar 18 07:11:18 jakepiot gamemoded[3930]: ERROR: Output was:
Mar 18 07:11:18 jakepiot gamemoded[3930]: ERROR: External process failed with
exit code 127
Mar 18 07:11:18 jakepiot gamemoded[3930]: ERROR: Output was:
Mar 18 07:11:18 jakepiot gamemoded[3930]: ERROR: Failed to update
split_lock_mitigate
Mar 18 07:11:18 jakepiot pkexec[4063]: jake: Error executing command as another
user: Not authorized [USER=root] [TTY=unknown] [CWD=/home/jake]
[COMMAND=/usr/libexec/cpugovctl set performance]
Mar 18 07:11:18 jakepiot gamemoded[4063]: Error executing command as another
user: Not authorized
Mar 18 07:11:18 jakepiot gamemoded[4063]: This incident has been reported.

#1067097#10
Date:
2025-04-22 09:57:04 UTC
From:
To:
Hello,

This is permission issue. You must be in group `gamemode`.
This group is used in `/usr/share/polkit-1/rules.d/gamemode.rules`
provided by `gamemode-daemon` package.

The bug is that the package installer does not create this group.

After manual create `gamemode` group and add yourself to this group
tests are passed.

Regards,
Robert Paciorek

#1067097#15
Date:
2026-07-05 10:04:31 UTC
From:
To:
Greetings,

	I installed `gamemode` and ran `gamemode -t`. Everything verified except the CPU governor setting.
     ineffective)?

	I manually added the group `gamemode` to my system, then I added myself (the user) to that group.
	```
	sudo groupadd gamemode
	sudo usermod -aG gamemode $USER
	```
	This solved the problem.