Hello, forgive me if I don’t give sufficient information because I am new-ish to Linux and this forum, but I have tried and failed to troubleshoot this multiple times and I figure it’s time to try and solve this seeing as other threads are either dead or solving a different issue.
I use a dual monitor display. Sometime after an hour or two has passed with flawless use, usually when playing a game, one of my two monitors will freeze. It is not always the same monitor, but it will begin with one. I can still technically “interact” with the software on the frozen monitor, seeing as for example I can pause and resume Elisa or YouTube (and still hear audio), but after a little bit I’ve seen it turn into a full on system freeze.
Interestingly, this wasn’t an issue when I first started using Fedora, but as I updated it began to show up. It is always fixed with a restart, but I find it annoying to have to restart every so often, and I’m not sure if it’s a random bug or if specific applications will trigger it because I have seen some deeply annoying bugs with Wayland and X11 interacting, but I cannot with this bug. I fear the day I’m working on a project and halfway through finishing the monitor freezes and I can’t even save the project.
I know this isn’t a problem with my NVIDIA drivers, I’ve already tried reinstalling them through rpmfusion and that did about nothing. I wouldn’t think it’s a hardware problem but if there’s a way to find that out I’ll be in the comments for sure. I’m sticking with the idea that it might be something to do with Wayland and X11 applications interacting or maybe some bugs with a dual monitor setup seeing as I’ve seen that sentiment in other forums, but solutions elude me.
Anyways here’s some of my info that might help. I’m ready to do some reading and figure some things out but again forgive me if I ask some questions that seem a little dumb, I switched from Windows a few months ago and I’ve tried my best to learn the technobabble associated with the switch.
System Info
Fedora Linux 41 (KDE Plasma)
KDE Plasma Version: 6.2.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.10.0
Qt Version: 6.8.1
Kernel Version: 6.12.8-200.fc41.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processor: 24 x AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor
It is unlikely that anything running in the application layer would affect a whole monitor like that (unless it was specifically designed to). It is much more likely that it is something “deeper” in the OS and closer to the hardware. Most likely it is a bug in the Linux kernel.
Has the problem only appeared recently (for example, after an update)? If so, you might still have the older kernel that worked previously installed on your system. Fedora Linux, by default, keeps the previous three kernels. Try holding the <shift> key down while you boot your PC. A boot menu should appear listing three Linux kernels. The top one should be the newest and highlighted by default. Use the arrow keys to select an older kernel and the <enter> key to boot your system with the selected kernel. You can use the uname -r command while your system is running to confirm which kernel it is currently using. If the problem only occurs when using the new kernel, you can report the bug against that kernel version.
HTH,
gb
Edit: I see that you already stated that this happened after applying updates.
Oh, I should also mention that when I say “as I updated,” it moreso means that when I started using Fedora it wasn’t an issue, but it popped up some time during the end of the Fedora 40 life cycle (which was soon after I started using it) and hasn’t been fixed in the updates since. I hope I didn’t add too much confusion but I should have been more specific, for all I know maybe I just didn’t encounter the issue then.
I do appreciate the advice though, knowing it (probably) isn’t the application layer is comforting.
If the problem might have started longer ago and has remained un-fixed/patched for several kernel releases, then you might need to install and test a much older kernel to determine if that is where the problem originates. You can install the kernel that originally came with Fedora Linux 40 using the following command:
You will then need to reboot your PC and hold the <shift> key to show the boot menu and select the older kernel to test it. It is OK to run a slightly older kernel with a newer OS. Good hunting!
P.S. You will likely need to reinstall the Nvidia drivers for the older kernel as well. Using third-party drivers does complicate things a bit.
I am also experiencing a version of this bug, after wakeup there are parts of the screen flickering, certain apps (like the system monitor) have 90% of text missing.
KDE 6.0.4
Wayland
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 550.78 drivers
Edit: Comment 61 appears to be the conclusion of that bug report. I’m not sure if it applies in your case?:
Thanks everyone. So I brought this to the attention of a KWin developer who brought it to the attention of an NVIDIA developer.
The conclusion here is that NVreg_PreserveVideoMemoryAllocations=1 is not a workaround, and should be used. The only reason it’s not turned on by default is because if it’s turned on without the appropriate pre-suspend hooks in place, suspend will get broken. NVIDIA distributed systemd unit files for these hooks, but they don’t trust distros and users to install and activate them, and of course those using non-systemd distros will have to figure something else out as well. So they leave it off by default to avoid having to handle those cases.
So from a KDE perspective this is basically a downstream/distro issue at this point. I encourage everyone to go contact their distros about it as well, and ideally submit patches if you’re a distro packager or like to play one on TV.
Unfortunately not. After doing some searching I found that it’s already enabled for me.
I did cat /proc/driver/nvidia/params | sort and it returned me with a list of configs. This is the one of note here:
PreserveVideoMemoryAllocations: 1
However I will say my issue appears to be different from the one referenced here. The description of the bug is different from what I experience. However you did help me get to searching for similar issues so I’m going to try my luck sifting down those forums.
Did you ever solve the issue? I’ve been having the same issue and also started using Fedora early in Fedora 40, and seem to have been having these issues for the same amount of time as you, persisting to Fedora 41.
