Turned on HDR. Desktop now unusable

Ask Fedora
1

Linux rookie here.

I was trying out a few display settings and tried turning on a HDR mode checkbox, then applied. The screen turned completely green and the gui looked like it froze. I turned off my pc and back on only to find that it is now a frozen green screen every time I log in.

How can I fix this? I don’t want to have to do a complete reinstall of fedora. I can still enter tty mode and login there.

I’m using Fedora KDE plasma variant and use an Nvidia GPU for display + proprietary drivers.

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2

To fix the frozen green screen without reinstalling Fedora, you need to delete KDE Plasma’s display configuration file.

Enabling HDR under the Wayland session on certain Nvidia proprietary drivers causes a known conflict that corrupts display outputs. Removing this file forces KDE Plasma to generate a fresh, default display configuration on your next login, disabling HDR automatically.

Step 1: Switch to TTY Mode

  1. Boot your computer normally to the frozen green login screen.

  2. Press Ctrl + Alt + F3 (or F4, F5) on your keyboard to switch to a text-only terminal interface (TTY).

  3. Type your normal Linux username, hit Enter, and then type your password to log in.

Step 2: Delete the Broken Display Settings File

Run the following command to completely remove the JSON file where KDE saves your custom display and HDR choices

rm ~/.config/kwinoutputconfig.json

Step 3: Reboot the System

Type the following command to safely restart your system:

sudo reboot

Once the PC reboots, log in normally through the graphical interface. Your screen should return to its default, working SDR state.

3

This worked. Thank you!