Wayland lag/stuttering since kernel 6.11.2

Framework Laptop 13 Linux
,
1

Hello I am reporting that I am having severe graphic issues starting from (standard) kernel 6.11.2. What I am having is a very laggy/stuttering display, especially the external one. You can feel it as soon as you launch the terminal, and it’s so bad to be unusable apart from debugging purposes.

Few extra considerations:

  • it only affects wayland (both Hyprland / Sway) and not X (i3 is fine)
  • it only affects kernel 6.11.2 onward (6.11.4 is still affected). The latest LTS (6.6.57) is fine.
  • I have the Framework13 with AMD 7640U
  • I am on Arch

Is anyone else in the same situation?

2

Hi @Alessio_Elmi,

Is this happening in casual desktop usaage or with gaming? We’re seeing folks on Arch (same kernel) having flickering during gaming, fine on older kernels.

3

I am currently on AMD FW13 6.11.4 (and also just built 6.12rc4) on CachyOS with their kernel (Arch based).

I haven’t noticed any issues on my usage, although I haven’t tested any games.

Running mine on wayland with Hyprland

4

Vanilla GNOME on Wayland Fedora 40 here, no issues (13 inch 7840U).

I do have another occasional bug that others have encountered too:

but that seems different.

Is that a “required” step to get the bug? If so which terminal?

I can’t find it now, but I vaguely remember a bug that involved the terminal emulator. I think I was running on X back then. CPU use high and/or display lag was involved. Shot in the dark but worth a mention.

5

Hi. I had similar issue on Manjaro (Arch based) with 6.11.3 onwards. It’s still present on 6.12rc4.
I resolved it with the following entry in /etc/environment:

GSK_RENDERER=ngl

Maybe it helps in your situation?

6

Hi,

On a FW16. No dGPU. Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS.
I am seeing similar stuttering on mainline kernel 6.11.5 (not reproducible here in 6.11.2)
Playing videos in windows or fullscreen in youtube / firefox seems to be fine (plays ok).
When I use the linux application “mpv” to play a video, it plays ok in a window, but then tends to suffer or completely pause when full screen. Moving the finger across the touchpad advances the video almost frame by frame. Pressing keys (does nothing) does not advance the video.
Summary:
mpv plays well in 6.11.2
mpv pauses / stutters in 6.11.5

Is this linked to:

Using “xrandr --output eDP --set TearFree on” helps cure the problem for me.

7

Not a kernel issue but a bug on gtk.

8

I was seeing this as well since 6.11.2 or so on both FW13 11th gen and 13th gen. Definitely affected Hyprland, even with no GTK based apps running at all.

6.11.5 seems to be slightly less bad, but not completely cured.

EDIT: I’m changing my answer on this. Still getting stuttering and freeze ups, less so in the terminal but Steam games via proton are way worse.

9

Just tried this. Made it worse, not better for me.

10

Hi,

There is a Linux kernel patch that fixes this now.
See:

If you like compiling your own kernels, you can use that patch.
Otherwise, just wait until it gets backported.

11

Also: this can be worked around by adding amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x400 to your cmdline until the patches hit stable.

Although I’m unable to reproduce the issue (sway with 6.11.6, though I never had any issues with earlier kernel versions either). Might be related to Xorg/Xwayland, which I’m not using.

12

So I have almost forgot about this issue since I had moved to LTS, haven’t spent much energies on this.

Today I have spent a couple of hours more trying to narrow down the issue a bit more.

  • Other kernel flavors (like ZEN) or newer (tried mainline 6.12-rc) do not help.
  • Using only laptop display is fine, the issue appears as soon as I enable the external display.
  • As a benchmark I am using ‘glxgears’ and measured the framerate on the external display:
    • kernel 6.6, I always get ~60fps, no matter which configuration nor which display.
    • kernel 6.11 or 6.12:
      • display port through docking station → ~10fps
      • hdmi through docking station → ~25fps
      • hdmi directly connected → ~58fps (however I can see little stuttering)
      • I don’t have DP module to plug monitor directly to the laptop
        (the docking station is HP Dock G5 USB-C)

Not sure if anyone of you has a USB-C docking station with DPort to test…

13

Hi,

Have you tried any of the suggestions in this thread?
It would be good to list each of them, and you report whether they helped or not.

The dock you have appears to use dp-alt mode as opposed to the terrible display link, so that is good at least.

14

Well, GSK_RENDERER=ngl is not helping, while the “TearFree” issue is not applying since that refers to xorg (which in my case I remember was working) while I am on wayland (sway/hyprland suffer in the same way).

Not a kernel issue but a bug on gtk.

Not understanding this comment. I had highlighted that switching kernel version fixed (or hides?) the issue. Other libraries like GTK are the same.

15

It looks like a fix will make it into 6.12 final that might be out tomorrow.

16

But as I was mentioning that issue/fix was related to another bug (xorg, not wayland, at least reading the description). In fact, as an extra test, I have compiled today the Arch Linux kernel “linux-amd-staging-drm-next” and it does NOT solve the issue… I still only have ~10fps in the external display and ~42fps in the internal display.

I think I will stay on 6.6 LTS for long time.