Fixing Slow Nautilus Startup on Ubuntu 26.04

After a fresh installation of Ubuntu 26.04 on my ASUS TUF Gaming A16 (AMD Radeon + NVIDIA RTX 5060), I noticed that Nautilus (Files) took 5–7 seconds to open.

Both GPU drivers were working correctly, but Nautilus started instantly when using the GTK OpenGL renderer instead of Vulkan.

Here’s how I fixed it.

1. Test the OpenGL renderer

nautilus -q
GSK_RENDERER=gl nautilus

If Nautilus opens instantly, the renderer is likely causing the delay.

2. Create a local desktop launcher

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications

cp /usr/share/applications/org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop \
   ~/.local/share/applications/

3. Use the OpenGL renderer

sed -i 's|^Exec=nautilus|Exec=env GSK_RENDERER=gl nautilus|' \
  ~/.local/share/applications/org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop

Disable D-Bus activation in the local launcher so GNOME uses the modified Exec command:

sed -i 's/^DBusActivatable=true/DBusActivatable=false/' \
  ~/.local/share/applications/org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop

4. Test the launcher

nautilus -q
gtk-launch org.gnome.Nautilus

Nautilus should now open instantly.

Result

Files now opens instantly from the Ubuntu dock, even after a restart.

No GPU driver changes were needed. The fix applies only to Nautilus, leaving the rest of the system unchanged.

Note: On newer GTK versions, ngl has been renamed to gl. Use GSK_RENDERER=gl to avoid the deprecation warning.