Display turns black when resolution is changed

Help
,
1

My display always turns black when I attempt to change the resolution from the default (2560 x 1440). My current “solution” was to launch a tty and remove ~/.local/share/kscreen, and everything boots back normal.

However, I want to play games on this system, and many games force resolution changes, so I need to find a way to actually change my screen resolution.

I’ll post the contents of the broken kscreen if needed. But to my observation the only thing changed was the height and width keys so I don’t think that’s the root cause of the problem.

The following output was grabbed when I rebooted and the display was working. I’m using X11. My distro is openSUSE Tumbleweed, plasma 5.27.6.

$ kscreen-doctor -i -o
Environment: 
  * KSCREEN_BACKEND           : [not set]
  * KSCREEN_BACKEND_INPROCESS : [not set]
  * KSCREEN_LOGGING           : [not set]
Logging to                : [logging disabled]
Preferred KScreen backend : KSC_XRandR.so
Available KScreen backends:
  * KSC_Fake.so: /usr/lib64/qt5/plugins/kf5/kscreen/KSC_Fake.so
  * KSC_KWayland.so: /usr/lib64/qt5/plugins/kf5/kscreen/KSC_KWayland.so
  * KSC_QScreen.so: /usr/lib64/qt5/plugins/kf5/kscreen/KSC_QScreen.so
  * KSC_XRandR.so: /usr/lib64/qt5/plugins/kf5/kscreen/KSC_XRandR.so
  * KSC_XRandR11.so: /usr/lib64/qt5/plugins/kf5/kscreen/KSC_XRandR11.so

Output: 66 eDP-1 enabled connected priority 1 Panel Modes: 76:2560x1440@120*! 77:2560x1440@60 78:2560x1440@60 79:2560x1440@60 80:2560x1440@60 81:2560x1440@60 82:1920x1440@85 83:1920x1440@75 84:1920x1440@60 85:1856x1392@75 86:1856x1392@60 87:1792x1344@75 88:1792x1344@60 89:2048x1152@60 90:2048x1152@60 91:2048x1152@60 92:2048x1152@60 93:1920x1200@60 94:1920x1200@60 95:1920x1080@60 96:1920x1080@60 97:1920x1080@60 98:1920x1080@60 99:1600x1200@85 100:1600x1200@75 101:1600x1200@70 102:1600x1200@65 103:1600x1200@60 104:1680x1050@60 105:1680x1050@60 106:1400x1050@75 107:1400x1050@60 108:1600x900@60 109:1600x900@60 110:1600x900@60 111:1600x900@60 112:1280x1024@85 113:1280x1024@75 114:1280x1024@60 115:1400x900@60 116:1400x900@60 117:1280x960@85 118:1280x960@60 119:1440x810@60 120:1440x810@60 121:1368x768@60 122:1368x768@60 123:1280x800@60 124:1280x800@60 125:1280x800@60 126:1280x800@60 127:1152x864@75 128:1280x720@60 129:1280x720@60 130:1280x720@60 131:1280x720@60 132:1024x768@85 133:1024x768@75 134:1024x768@60 135:1024x768@85 136:1024x768@75 137:1024x768@70 138:1024x768@60 139:1024x768@87 140:960x720@85 141:960x720@75 142:960x720@60 143:928x696@75 144:928x696@60 145:896x672@75 146:896x672@60 147:1024x576@60 148:1024x576@60 149:1024x576@60 150:1024x576@60 151:960x600@60 152:960x600@60 153:832x624@75 154:960x540@60 155:960x540@60 156:960x540@60 157:960x540@60 158:800x600@85 159:800x600@75 160:800x600@70 161:800x600@65 162:800x600@60 163:800x600@85 164:800x600@72 165:800x600@75 166:800x600@60 167:800x600@56 168:840x525@60 169:840x525@60 170:864x486@60 171:864x486@60 172:700x525@75 173:700x525@60 174:800x450@60 175:800x450@60 176:640x512@85 177:640x512@75 178:640x512@60 179:700x450@60 180:700x450@60 181:640x480@85 182:640x480@60 183:640x480@85 184:640x480@73 185:640x480@75 186:640x480@60 187:720x405@60 188:720x405@59 189:720x400@85 190:684x384@60 191:684x384@60 192:640x400@60 193:640x400@60 194:640x400@85 195:576x432@75 196:640x360@60 197:640x360@60 198:640x360@60 199:640x360@59 200:640x350@85 201:512x384@85 202:512x384@75 203:512x384@70 204:512x384@60 205:512x384@87 206:512x288@60 207:512x288@60 208:416x312@75 209:480x270@60 210:480x270@60 211:400x300@85 212:400x300@72 213:400x300@75 214:400x300@60 215:400x300@56 216:432x243@60 217:432x243@60 218:320x240@85 219:320x240@73 220:320x240@75 221:320x240@60 222:360x202@60 223:360x202@59 224:360x200@85 225:320x200@85 226:320x180@60 227:320x180@59 228:320x175@85 Geometry: 0,0 2560x1440 Scale: 1 Rotation: 1 Overscan: 0 Vrr: incapable RgbRange: unknown
Output: 67 HDMI-1 disabled disconnected priority 0 HDMI Modes: Geometry: 0,0 0x0 Scale: 1 Rotation: 1 Overscan: 0 Vrr: incapable RgbRange: unknown
Output: 68 DP-1 disabled disconnected priority 0 DisplayPort Modes: Geometry: 0,0 0x0 Scale: 1 Rotation: 1 Overscan: 0 Vrr: incapable RgbRange: unknown
Output: 69 DP-2 disabled disconnected priority 0 DisplayPort Modes: Geometry: 0,0 0x0 Scale: 1 Rotation: 1 Overscan: 0 Vrr: incapable RgbRange: unknown
Output: 70 DP-3 disabled disconnected priority 0 DisplayPort Modes: Geometry: 0,0 0x0 Scale: 1 Rotation: 1 Overscan: 0 Vrr: incapable RgbRange: unknown
Output: 71 DP-4 disabled disconnected priority 0 DisplayPort Modes: Geometry: 0,0 0x0 Scale: 1 Rotation: 1 Overscan: 0 Vrr: incapable RgbRange: unknown
Output: 72 DP-5 disabled disconnected priority 0 DisplayPort Modes: Geometry: 0,0 0x0 Scale: 1 Rotation: 1 Overscan: 0 Vrr: incapable RgbRange: unknown
Output: 73 DP-6 disabled disconnected priority 0 DisplayPort Modes: Geometry: 0,0 0x0 Scale: 1 Rotation: 1 Overscan: 0 Vrr: incapable RgbRange: unknown
Output: 74 DP-7 disabled disconnected priority 0 DisplayPort Modes: Geometry: 0,0 0x0 Scale: 1 Rotation: 1 Overscan: 0 Vrr: incapable RgbRange: unknown
2

Does it turn black and stays black?

If you change your resolution from the Display Configuration settings from KDE it should revert back to you original resolution if you don’t click accept in like ~20 seconds or so. Does that work?

Does the issue also happen in Wayland?

3

It reverts after a 20 sec wait. But I’m trying to get my 640 x 480 game to work so this does not actually solve the problem.

4

Can you confirm your monitor actually does support 640 x 480? Some monitor firmware will advertise resolutions that don’t actually work.

5

I can’t switch to any resolution, other than the default 2560 x 1440. I can switch to 1920 x 1080 on my last GNOME installation but I can’t now. So this is likely a KDE problem.

6

refresh should also change, since only 2560x1440 is able to run at 120 hz. Can you post the output of the broken file? Or try to set the refresh rate first to 60 hz and then change the resolution.

7

Refresh changed indeed. I’ll try switching refresh before changing resolution though:

Here is the content of the file with a long hex filename (UUID?) at the broken kscreen directory:

[
    {
        "enabled": true,
        "id": "8def6fa97bc739b6d870f04e42ecdf87",
        "metadata": {
            "fullname": "xrandr-BOE",
            "name": "eDP-1"
        },
        "mode": {
            "refresh": 60,
            "size": {
                "height": 480,
                "width": 640
            }
        },
        "overscan": 0,
        "pos": {
            "x": 0,
            "y": 0
        },
        "priority": 1,
        "rgbrange": 0,
        "rotation": 1,
        "scale": 1,
        "vrrpolicy": 2
    }
]
8

Changing refresh rate also causes black screen.

9

Currently in the display configuration menu with the resolution settings. The only thing that does not yield a black screen are “apply these settings for …” and screen scaling. Everything else causes a 20 second black screen.

10

Seems like the issue is actually to set the refresh rate.
Are you comfortable using the terminal? Can you use xrandr to change the resolution / refresh rate?

Also try wayland to see if it works there.

Not sure what which setting this is. Are you using multiple monitors?

11

Hello, everyone
Any evolution with this issue ?
I’m having the same problem with kubuntu.
Thank’s any help.
Helênio