Which Linux distro are you using? openSUSE Tumbleweed-Slowroll
Which release version? 20250501
Which kernel are you using? 6.14.6
Which BIOS version are you using? Factory version
Which Framework Laptop 13 model are you using? AMD Ryzen AI 370 HX
When browsing the web with Firefox under KDE Plasma 6.3.5 Wayland, sometimes when moving the mouse over elements or scrolling, the display (120 Hz 2.8K variant) will flicker (not just the browser window). It might also occur with other applications, I didn’t do much testing yet (it didn’t happen in games so far).
I’ve recorded a short clip where this occurs (sorry for the low quality):
This did not happen with my Core Ultra 125H mainboard. I have tried the suggestion from this Reddit comment (setting amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x410) but to no avail (seems to be a slightly different issue).
Any idea what is going on here and a possible fix?
Did you found a solution? I can’t see your video, but I guess I have the same problem on arch and gnome.
Arch wiki mentions:
Wayland sometimes interferes with hardware video decoding. If video briefly flickers when you go fullscreen, you may need to set widget.wayland.opaque-region.enabled=false in about:config.
I did this and I think it became less. But sometimes it still happens.
I have the same issue with Firefox on Ubuntu 25.04, only more intense sometimes. I seems to happen when hovering links, I’ve got a video where the whole bottom half flickers grey, then the whole screen turns grey. If I mouse-off the link it’s fixed again.
It seems more frequent when the laptop has been suspended.
Kinda weird, I replugged the display cable but i guess it’s a software issue. Let’s hope it gets fixed soon.
I have the same issue too, ever since I got my new Ryzen AI 7 mainboard. It seems to always happen only in Chrome on certain websites or when Googling.
It’s happened across multiple distros, Linux Mint, Endeavor OS, Ubuntu, Fedora KDE, and now Vanilla Fedora with Gnome that I am currently using.
I’ve seen a few reports of this so far, so I’m glad I’m not alone. I really hope it is a software issue that can be fixed and not a hardware defect.
I am getting the same issue on my framework 13, started very soon after receiving the laptop (batch 7). It’s only happened when browsing the web, and at least on my machine doesn’t seem to be related to brightness. At one point the flickering blocked out my whole screen for a solid 5 seconds. I haven’t been able to reliably reproduce the flickering.
Wonder what’s causing this if it’s really is a hardware issue.
In my case, the flickering primarily occurs when viewing pages with a white or similarly light background while dark mode appears to prevent it (although simply displaying a plain white screen does not trigger the flickering). The most reliable way for me to reproduce the issue is by opening this page: Files · wip/dnf5daemon · Milan Crha / gnome-software · GitLab. Usually, just opening it causes the flickering immediately. If not, moving the cursor over the search box or branch dropdown always triggers it with 100% consistency.
The flickering happens regardless of the browser. I have observed it both in Firefox and Chromium. I don’t even need to open the page in a browser. Taking a screenshot of that page and viewing the image fullscreen in an image viewer is enough to cause the flickering as well.
I have a similar configuration (Fedora 42 workstation, Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, 2.8k display, 128gb crucial ram, the difference is that I have a 4tb Samsung 990 pro SSD and Intel AX210 Wi-Fi). I upgraded from the previous generation and the flickering started after that. I also tried upgrading to the 3.04 beta BIOS and using a kernel from Fedora Rawhide but neither made any difference.
In my case, brightness also has no effect on whether flickering happens. Also tech support asked me to test it on Ubuntu and flickering happens there too.
Oh wow, I just tested this and I can reproduce this. Not on the website you linked, but ironically on this very thread it started flickering so I took a screenshot of the entire screen, opened the screenshot full screen and sure enough, it flickers.
I can also confirm that this happens on 100% brightness as well (any brightness, really). I tried the different power modes, charger vs battery, doesn’t change anything.
I’m also getting periodic flickering on the Ryzen AI 350 with KDE Plasma in Chrome. I’m running Debian Trixie so my current kernel is 6.12.33. I’ve observed this both on the laptop’s screen and when it is plugged into an external display.
Your website example allows me to reproduce the flickering every time, but when I tried taking images/videos of the page, and viewing them in full screen, I’m not able to reproduce the flickering.
Interestingly enough, when I recorded my screen flickering using the built-in GNOME screen recorder, it doesn’t record the flickering at all, so perhaps the flickering is happening at the hardware level in the display controller or something?
Strange that certain events in the web browser are able to reproduce it only (for me at least) if it is a hardware issue, gaming and such hasn’t ever make the screen flicker otherwise.
I’ve also experienced this a few times on the Framework forum when I wasn’t logged in, since I normally use the dark theme, where the flickering doesn’t appear. However, I haven’t found a reliable way to reproduce it there. Another site where it occasionally happens to me is DeepL.
I’ve only been able to reproduce the flickering on the internal display, but that might be because the only external display I occasionally connect to the laptop is an old TV with a low resolution. I have not been able to reproduce the issue at resolutions lower than display native resolution. However, I’m not sure whether the absence of flickering is due to the lower resolution itself or to the black borders introduced at non-native aspect ratios, since 2880×1920 is the only available resolution that uses the full 3:2 aspect ratio of the panel without borders. At the native resolution, the flickering occurs at both 60 Hz and 120 Hz.
What resolution does your external monitor use?
Maybe I wasn’t clear enough in the instructions. Did you take a full-screen screenshot using the Print Screen key, or did you use a browser feature that only captures the web page without the desktop panel and browser UI? Here are the videos I recorded for technical support. The first one shows the GitLab page displayed on Fedora, and the second one shows a screenshot of the same page that I took on Fedora but viewed on Ubuntu.
As I’ve already mentioned, in my case the flickering only occurs at native resolution, and because the Framework 13 isn’t capable of running games smoothly at 2.8K, I haven’t spent enough time playing at that resolution to confirm or deny it. Also, games typically don’t feature as much white background as web pages.
I tried both ways, couldn’t reproduce flickering.
I’ve ran a few lighter-weight games at native resolution, and while they don’t feature as much white-space, some webpages I’ve been on haven’t had all that much white-space either and they caused flickering.
Strange that other apps haven’t caused the flickering on my end, surely apps with lots of white-space like onlyoffice or other utilities would cause some flickering.
You raise good points, and I’ll try testing on my end to see if I can get the display to flicker doing non-web stuff.
Framework support asked me to run their log export script, but there was nothing in the log at the time the flickering happened. So I think you might be right.
I’ve found another page where it happes consistenly: https://www.painkillerideas.com/ when scrolling with the arrow keys around the “How it’s different from random idea lists” section.
Can confirm the brightness setting makes no difference (for me).
I’m also getting in touch with support now, let’s see what they say.
I managed to replicate it on the that page. It took me a while to figure out where to scroll to, but now I can reproduce it quite reliably.
I don’t think it’s possible to run Gnome on X.org in Fedora 42 (maybe it’s possible with some third-party packages, but I don’t think it’s possible with packages from the official repository). The basic installation definitely does not include an X.org session.
Same.
I couldn’t reproduce the flickering on an external display. However, I only tested it on an old low resolution TV. My internal display is 2.8K panel, and I don’t have an external monitor with a similar resolution to test with. However, @blum8 mentioned that the flickering happens to him also on an external monitor with high resolution.
Yes, you are right that flickering affected the previous generation. If I recall correctly, it was related to power-saving technologies, I think it was something like Panel Self Refresh or Display Panel Replay. A common workaround at the time was to disable the feature using a kernel boot parameter. The only downside was a slight increase in power consumption. This workaround is still mentioned in the Framework Fedora 41 installation guide, but it is now crossed out and marked as no longer necessary because the issue was patched in the kernel. That said, I have tried several of those boot parameters that were previously used to fix flickering, but none of them have had any effect on the current issue, at least for me.
Also, in the second thread, @James_Cox mentioned he is experiencing flickering on Windows 11.
I found this bug report: Making sure you're not a bot!. Interestingly, it also involves a 2.8K display. However, lowering the refresh rate or using the mentioned boot parameters didn’t resolve the issue for me.