https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=523267
Bug ID: 523267
Summary: Enabling HDR causes intermittent system freeze (atomic
commit failed) on AMD/RADV
Classification: Plasma
Product: kwin
Version First 6.7.3
Reported In:
Platform: CachyOS
OS: Linux
Status: REPORTED
Severity: normal
Priority: NOR
Component: colour-management
Assignee: [email protected]
Reporter: [email protected]
CC: [email protected]
Target Milestone: ---
# Bug Report: Enabling HDR causes intermittent system freeze (atomic commit
failed) — AMD/RADV
## Summary
Enabling HDR (both in-app and at the system level via Display Configuration)
leads to intermittent full-system freezes, most reliably triggered by a
fullscreen HDR application losing/regaining focus (e.g. alt-tabbing to or
interacting with another window). This appears related to bug 503385 ("enabling
HDR for projector screen results in system freeze"), which was
resolved-upstream and pointed at NVIDIA. This report demonstrates the same
failure signature (`atomic commit failed`) occurring on AMD hardware
(RADV/amdgpu), suggesting the issue is not NVIDIA-specific.
## System Information
```
OS: CachyOS x86_64
Host: B650 EAGLE AX (Default string-CF)
Kernel: Linux 7.1.4-1-cachyos
DE: KDE Plasma 6.7.3
WM: KWin (Wayland)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D (16) @ 5.27 GHz
GPU 1: AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT [Discrete]
GPU 2: AMD Radeon Graphics (iGPU)
Memory: 30.46 GiB
Displays:
- ASUS VP249: 1080x1920 (portrait), 144 Hz, External
- MSI3DE0: 2560x1440, 180 Hz, External (primary)
```
## Steps to Reproduce
1. Enable HDR at the system level (System Settings → Display Configuration →
Enable HDR) on the primary display.
2. Launch a fullscreen application that requests an HDR-capable swapchain (in
this case, a game running under Proton with `PROTON_ENABLE_HDR=1
PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1` set as launch options).
3. While the fullscreen HDR application is running, switch focus to or interact
with another window (e.g. a browser) — via Alt+Tab or otherwise causing KWin to
recomposite.
4. Observe the freeze.
## Observed Result
- The entire desktop freezes for several seconds to over a minute — not just
the game window, but all applications (verified with btop and a video playing
in a separate window, both frozen simultaneously).
- Audio continues playing uninterrupted during the freeze (confirms it's a
display/compositor stall, not a full system hang).
- The freeze sometimes resolves on its own; Alt+Tab sometimes (not reliably)
breaks out of it.
- Disabling HDR (both the in-app toggle *and* the system-level "Enable HDR"
setting, and removing the Proton HDR/Wayland launch options) eliminates the
freezing entirely. This was confirmed via isolation testing — freezes stopped
completely once both were disabled, and the same session was otherwise stable.
## Expected Result
HDR should remain enabled and stable through normal window focus changes and
compositing mode transitions (fullscreen ↔ windowed/composited) without
freezing the desktop.
## Relevant journalctl / dmesg Output
Kernel taking over the console at the exact freeze timestamp, followed by
repeated HDR metadata renegotiation:
```
19:01:00 fbcon: Taking over console
19:01:00 HDR SB:01 1a 02 00 09 83 a7 3c 50 37 81 7d 23 1e 4d 0a
19:01:00 HDR SB:3a 3d 47 40 2e 01 6c 01 2e 01 2e 01 00 00 00 00
19:01:01 Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 240x67
19:01:10 HDR SB:... (repeats)
19:01:31 HDR SB:... (repeats)
19:01:45 HDR SB:... (repeats)
```
KWin log for the same window (PID 1526 — did not crash or restart):
```
19:01:00 kwin_wayland[1526]: atomic commit failed: Permission denied
19:01:00 kwin_wayland[1526]: atomic commit failed: Permission denied
19:01:31 kwin_wayland[1526]: atomic commit failed: Permission denied
19:02:13 kwin_wayland[1526]: The requested buffer size is too big, ignoring
19:02:13 kwin_wayland[1526]: The requested buffer size is too big, ignoring
19:02:13 kwin_wayland[1526]: The requested buffer size is too big, ignoring
```
No corresponding amdgpu kernel driver errors, GPU resets, or OOM events were
present in dmesg around these timestamps — memory headroom was confirmed ample
(~22 GiB available) at time of testing, and no `amdgpu_job_timedout` or reset
messages appear near the freeze window. This suggests the failure is isolated
to KWin's DRM atomic-commit/compositing path rather than a GPU hang or driver
crash.
## Additional Notes
- This was reproduced consistently across multiple play sessions of the same
application, with the trigger narrowing down specifically to HDR + a
compositing-mode-relevant event (window focus change away from the fullscreen
HDR surface).
- The originally-reported bug 503385 was resolved-upstream and attributed to
the NVIDIA driver ("the driver says no" per `drm_atomic_check_only... failed:
-22`). This report is submitted separately since the hardware here is AMD
(RADV/amdgpu), and I could not find an existing report confirming the same
class of failure on AMD.
- Happy to provide a DRM debug log per the KWin debugging wiki
(https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/wikis/Debugging/Debugging-DRM-issues) if
useful — will follow up with one if requested.
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