Bug 514947

Summary:	Screen freezing after changing Color Accuracy setting when HDR enabled
Product:	[Plasma] kwin	Reporter:	boki <aranea.network>
Component:	colour-management	Assignee:	KWin default assignee <kwin-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Severity:	crash	CC:	akselmo, aranea.network, kdedev, xaver.hugl
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	efficiency-and-performance
Version First Reported In:	6.3.6
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Debian stable
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description boki 2026-01-22 20:27:06 UTC

SUMMARY
Getting this every time, and the only solution I could come up so far was reinstalling the system. Since I am tired of reinstalling, would be grateful if anyone knows a solution or at least a workaround how to restore the system to its normal state.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Open Display Configuration - System Settings window
2. Enable HDR with Color accuracy set to Prefer efficiency and apply changes
3. Change Color accuracy to Prefer Color accuracy

OBSERVED RESULT
All screens freeze, mouse movable but no reaction while clicking, screen for which the setting was changed turns black (showing no display msg). Turning the affected monitor off restores functionality to the other monitor. Turning it back on freezes everything but the mouse, and the screen goes black again.

EXPECTED RESULT
Continue working with the new setting on all monitors

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma: yes
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.6
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.13.0
Qt Version: 6.8.2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Kernel Version: 6.12.63+deb13-amd64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland

HARDWARE:
CPU: 8 x Intel Core i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20 GHz
Memory: 32 GB RAM
GPU: AMD Radeon RX580 8GB
MBO: MS-7977 (Z170A Gaming M5)
Monitor: 2x Dell S2721DFGA

Comment 1 boki 2026-01-22 20:56:29 UTC

Just discovered one new thing. 

1. I disabled the HDR on the remaining monitor, applied new setting.
2. Then I switched the Color accuracy setting to "Prefer color accuracy" and applied settings again. 
3. Turned HDR on and applied settings.
4. Turned the 2nd monitor on and could use the system (before it would freeze). But the 2nd monitor remained black and unusable

Also, when trying to change profile on my monitor, the monitor report currently is HDR content being played on and profiles cannot be switched.

Comment 2 boki 2026-01-23 03:46:29 UTC

Found a workaround!

I deleted the file $HOME/.config/kwinoutputconfig.json and rebooted. That restored the functionality for both monitors and has disabled HDR.

Comment 3 boki 2026-01-23 04:05:07 UTC

Another discovery: the error comes without HDR enabled too. As soon the Color accuracy setting is changed and applied, the screen freezes, regardless if HDR is already enabled or not.

Comment 4 Akseli Lahtinen 2026-01-23 11:20:42 UTC

Can't reproduce on my system, wonder if it's monitor or GPU specific.

Operating System: KDE Linux 2026-01-22
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.80
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0
Qt Version: 6.10.1
Kernel Version: 6.18.6-zen1-1-zen (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor
Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (15.5 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 6600

Comment 5 TraceyC 2026-01-23 15:51:43 UTC

Debian advises users to not submit bugs upstream ([https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting](https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting)), and unfortunately, Plasma 6.3.x is no longer eligible for support or maintenance from KDE. It's possible that the issue exists only in Debian at this point.

Could you report the bug to Debian using the report bug utility ([https://packages.debian.org/stable/utils/reportbug](https://packages.debian.org/stable/utils/reportbug))? They should be able to help you out. If necessary, the maintainer of the package will forward the bug upstream.

Thanks for understanding!