Colors are washed out since last updates

Hello,
Since the last update I did 3 or 4 days ago, the colors on my Garuda KDE looks all washed out and weird. I cannot describe it with a visual cue but I’ll tell you that it looks very much alike the difference between a cheap VA display and a quality IPS display.

I have searched about this issue but didn’t find any recent or past posts about it, hence created this topic.

I tried to see if I can change the color profile in System Settings but the devices list is empty and switching between profiles has not effect.

You can find the garuda-inxi output below.

System:
Kernel: 6.9.0-arch1-1.2-g14 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.1.1
clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm parameters: ibt=off pm_debug_messages
amd_pmc.dyndbg="+p" acpi.dyndbg="file drivers/acpi/x86/s2idle.c +p"
BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-g14
root=UUID=5a626eaf-d41d-4404-aaba-ba9cecfa5fcc rw rootflags=subvol=@
quiet rd.udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0
systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy=1 loglevel=3 ibt=off
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.0.4 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.2.0
wm: kwin_wayland vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: ROG Zephyrus G14 GA401QM_GA401QM
v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: GA401QM v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: GA401QM.415
date: 08/11/2023
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 56.1 Wh (86.6%) condition: 64.8/76.0 Wh (85.2%)
power: 12.8 W volts: 15.8 min: 15.8 model: ASUSTeK ASUS Battery type: Li-ion
serial: N/A status: discharging
CPU:
Info: model: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Zen 3 gen: 4 level: v3 note: check built: 2021-22
process: TSMC n7 (7nm) family: 0x19 (25) model-id: 0x50 (80) stepping: 0
microcode: 0xA50000C
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 8 tpc: 2 threads: 16 smt: enabled cache:
L1: 512 KiB desc: d-8x32 KiB; i-8x32 KiB L2: 4 MiB desc: 8x512 KiB
L3: 16 MiB desc: 1x16 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 773 high: 1397 min/max: 400/4680 scaling:
driver: amd-pstate-epp governor: powersave cores: 1: 400 2: 400 3: 1396
4: 400 5: 400 6: 400 7: 400 8: 400 9: 400 10: 400 11: 1396 12: 1397
13: 1397 14: 400 15: 1397 16: 1397 bogomips: 105449
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Vulnerabilities: <filter>
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Cezanne [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Mobile Series]
vendor: ASUSTeK driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5 code: Vega
process: GF 14nm built: 2017-20 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
link-max: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s ports: active: eDP-1 empty: HDMI-A-1
bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:1638 class-ID: 0300 temp: 44.0 C
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.13 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.7
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu unloaded: modesetting
alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: eDP-1 res: 1920x1080 size: N/A modes: N/A
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi
device: 1 drv: swrast surfaceless: drv: radeonsi wayland: drv: radeonsi x11:
drv: radeonsi inactive: gbm
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 24.0.7-arch1.3
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (radeonsi
renoir LLVM 17.0.6 DRM 3.57 6.9.0-arch1-1.2-g14) device-ID: 1002:1638
memory: 500 MiB unified: no display-ID: :1.0
API: Vulkan v: 1.3.279 layers: 8 device: 0 type: integrated-gpu name: AMD
Radeon Graphics (RADV RENOIR) driver: mesa radv v: 24.0.7-arch1.3
device-ID: 1002:1638 surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland device: 1 type: cpu
name: llvmpipe (LLVM 17.0.6 256 bits) driver: mesa llvmpipe
v: 24.0.7-arch1.3 (LLVM 17.0.6) device-ID: 10005:0000
surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland
Audio:
Device-1: AMD Renoir Radeon High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 4
speed: 16 GT/s bus-ID: 04:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1637 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: AMD ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor vendor: ASUSTeK
driver: N/A alternate: snd_pci_acp3x, snd_rn_pci_acp3x, snd_pci_acp5x,
snd_pci_acp6x, snd_acp_pci, snd_rpl_pci_acp6x, snd_pci_ps,
snd_sof_amd_renoir, snd_sof_amd_rembrandt, snd_sof_amd_vangogh,
snd_sof_amd_acp63 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 4
speed: 16 GT/s bus-ID: 04:00.5 chip-ID: 1022:15e2 class-ID: 0480
Device-3: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
link-max: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s bus-ID: 04:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3
class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.9.0-arch1-1.2-g14 status: kernel-api tools: N/A
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.6 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: MEDIATEK MT7921 802.11ax PCI Express Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: AzureWave driver: mt7921e v: kernel pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s
lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 14c3:7961 class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
IF-ID-1: br-4e2ff65bc945 state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-2: br-b4afa47f2634 state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-3: br-dc39e61f41bf state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-4: docker0 state: down mac: <filter>
Info: services: NetworkManager, systemd-timesyncd, wpa_supplicant
Bluetooth:
Device-1: IMC Networks Wireless_Device driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 3-4:3 chip-ID: 13d3:3563
class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down bt-service: enabled,running
rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes address: N/A
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 206.83 GiB (21.7%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Samsung
model: MZVLQ1T0HBLB-00B00 size: 953.87 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter>
fw-rev: FXM7201Q temp: 39.9 C scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 298.82 GiB size: 298.82 GiB (100.00%)
used: 206.79 GiB (69.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 maj-min: 259:7
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 260 MiB size: 256 MiB (98.46%)
used: 42.5 MiB (16.6%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
ID-3: /home raw-size: 298.82 GiB size: 298.82 GiB (100.00%)
used: 206.79 GiB (69.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 maj-min: 259:7
ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 298.82 GiB size: 298.82 GiB (100.00%)
used: 206.79 GiB (69.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 maj-min: 259:7
ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 298.82 GiB size: 298.82 GiB (100.00%)
used: 206.79 GiB (69.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 maj-min: 259:7
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 15.03 GiB used: 6.2 MiB (0.0%) priority: 100
comp: zstd avail: lzo,lzo-rle,lz4,lz4hc,842 max-streams: 16 dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 46.9 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 45.0 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 0
Info:
Memory: total: 16 GiB note: est. available: 15.03 GiB used: 4.97 GiB (33.1%)
Processes: 364 Power: uptime: 5m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: s2idle
wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot, suspend, test_resume
image: 5.99 GiB services: org_kde_powerdevil, power-profiles-daemon,
upowerd Init: systemd v: 255 default: graphical tool: systemctl
Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 2077 libs: 591 tools: octopi,paru Compilers:
clang: 17.0.6 gcc: 14.1.1 Shell: garuda-inxi default: fish v: 3.7.1
running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.34
Garuda (2.6.26-1):
System install date:     2021-10-20
Last full system update: 2024-05-18
Is partially upgraded:   No
Relevant software:       snapper NetworkManager mkinitcpio
Windows dual boot:       Probably (Run as root to verify)
Failed units:            samba.service

Thank you for your assistance.

Test X11 from login screen.
Is “Night light” on?

5 Likes

Hi SGS,
Thank you! I can confirm that switching back to X11 solved the issue. Is there a way to fix this for Wayland too?

The night light is off. I tried that the first time I noticed the issue but failed to mention it here, sorry.

Note: I found out that the color management device list show the monitor in X11 but the Wayland device list is empty.

We have to wait for upstream fix.

3 Likes

Activate/enable the “power” tray widget in the tray settings menu. I find about 70% screen brightness to be about right, using Wayland. And I have power-profiles-daemon installed and enabled. But that is in my Arch + Plasma system. Garuda may/will be different.

(I’m in Windows ATM so this advice is poorly described.)

The issue, as far as I understand, is caused by the display not being correctly detected by the OS thus not outputting the correct color profile or gamma settings. Setting the brightness only makes it less worse than before but the color output is not correct at all.
As SGS answered, we have to wait for the upstream fix. Thank you anyway!

Is HDR turned on? it can make SDR content look washed out.

1 Like

As elite suggested, try to turn HDR off in your monitor directly, then try Wayland again. I did this myself, as HDR was not shown properly.

I didn’t turn HDR on, actually don’t even know where the heck the setting for that is to begin with :slight_smile:

As I mentioned above, the device list within the “colour management” section of System Settings is empty in Wayland. This might be the cause behind the weird colors. In X11 the display is listed so the the color profile works properly.

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