Black Screen or Crashes when gaming. Manjaro 21 KDE Stable

Hi, I’m fairly familiar with linux, but new to gaming on it. I have a odd problem and I don’t even know where to start fixing it.

Occasionally my screen goes black when I open a game (ex. CS:GO) and continues to stay black while the game is running (I can hear sound effects and even clicks on the buttons while I hover/click randomly).
The screen comes on (sometimes) by it’s own, for a short interval before going dark again.
Alt tabbing out of the game fixes it (although it comes on after a considerable delay), alt tabbing back into the game will result in a black screen again.
Note, this only happens when the game is in Full Screen mode, Windowed or FullScreen Windowed shows no problems. Tested this in 3 games LoL (lutris), CS:GO (steam) and Track Mania (lutris).

Another considerable problem I have is that sometimes CS:GO simply crashes, no error message or anything, and trying to turn the game on again will result in an instant crash, or if lucky it will turn on only to crash after trying to join a match. The only way I fix this , is by rebooting the PC.
Haven’t noted this problem in any other game, just CS:GO.

What I want help with, is to troubleshoot both (or any) of these problems, because as much as I love this distro and linux in general, if I can’t get it to work reliably we may part ways :frowning: .

So I need some tips on where to start looking. Went looking for logs in the steam folders, but couldnt find anything useful. Maybe I missed it.
As for the display problem, having to go windowed mode is not what I would consider a Solution.

Any help or pointers regarding this matter will be greatly appreciated.

Edit:
System Info:
Operating System: Manjaro Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 5.22.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.86.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Kernel Version: 5.13.19-2-MANJARO (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 8 × AMD Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core Processor
Memory: 15.5 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER/PCIe/SSE2

System:
  Kernel: 5.13.19-2-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.13-x86_64 
  root=UUID=f4cd7d11-eb6b-47f8-be58-9586d3348a2b rw quiet apparmor=1 
  security=apparmor resume=UUID=77b21125-1ca6-4683-86fb-4888298b67da 
  udev.log_priority=3 
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.22.5 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM 
  Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: N/A v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS (WI-FI) v: Rev X.0x 
  serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1202 date: 10/22/2020 
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 
  model: Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse serial: <filter> 
  charge: 100% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
Memory:
  RAM: total: 15.51 GiB used: 7.17 GiB (46.2%) 
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:
  Info: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 3 3100 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 2 
  family: 17 (23) model-id: 71 (113) stepping: 0 microcode: 8701021 cache: 
  L2: 2 MiB bogomips: 60816 
  Speed: 3799 MHz min/max: 2200/3800 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 
  1: 3799 2: 3798 3: 3799 4: 3799 5: 3798 6: 3798 7: 3799 8: 3800 
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm adx aes aperfmperf apic arat avic avx avx2 bmi1 
  bmi2 bpext cat_l3 cdp_l3 clflush clflushopt clwb clzero cmov cmp_legacy 
  constant_tsc cpb cpuid cqm cqm_llc cqm_mbm_local cqm_mbm_total cqm_occup_llc 
  cr8_legacy cx16 cx8 de decodeassists extapic extd_apicid f16c flushbyasid 
  fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr fxsr_opt ht hw_pstate ibpb ibs irperf lahf_lm lbrv lm 
  mba mca mce misalignsse mmx mmxext monitor movbe msr mtrr mwaitx nonstop_tsc 
  nopl npt nrip_save nx osvw overflow_recov pae pat pausefilter pclmulqdq 
  pdpe1gb perfctr_core perfctr_llc perfctr_nb pfthreshold pge pni popcnt pse 
  pse36 rdpid rdpru rdrand rdseed rdt_a rdtscp rep_good sep sev sev_es sha_ni 
  skinit smap smca sme smep ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 stibp 
  succor svm svm_lock syscall tce topoext tsc tsc_scale umip v_spec_ctrl 
  v_vmsave_vmload vgif vmcb_clean vme vmmcall wbnoinvd wdt xgetbv1 xsave 
  xsavec xsaveerptr xsaveopt xsaves 
  Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
  Type: mds status: Not affected 
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
  Type: spec_store_bypass 
  mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
  Type: spectre_v1 
  mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full AMD retpoline, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: 
  conditional, RSB filling 
  Type: srbds status: Not affected 
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU116 [GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER] vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: nvidia v: 470.63.01 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus-ID: 07:00.0 
  chip-ID: 10de:2187 class-ID: 0300 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: 
  loaded: nvidia display-ID: :0 screens: 1 
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 90 s-size: 542x301mm (21.3x11.9") 
  s-diag: 620mm (24.4") 
  Monitor-1: DP-0 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 90 size: 544x303mm (21.4x11.9") 
  diag: 623mm (24.5") 
  OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER/PCIe/SSE2 
  v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 470.63.01 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU116 High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 07:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:1aeb 
  class-ID: 0403 
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 09:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 
  class-ID: 0403 
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.13.19-2-MANJARO running: yes 
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.19 running: no 
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes 
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.37 running: yes 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 05:00.0 
  chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280 
  IF: wlp5s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global 
  broadcast: <filter> 
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link 
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE vendor: ASUSTeK driver: r8169 v: kernel 
  port: f000 bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8125 class-ID: 0200 
  IF: enp6s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  WAN IP: <filter> 
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-5:2 
  chip-ID: 8087:0029 class-ID: e001 
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: see --recommends 
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found. 
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found. 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.21 TiB used: 334.97 GiB (27.0%) 
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: A-Data model: SX6000PNP 
  size: 476.94 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s 
  lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: V9002s09 temp: 37.9 C scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Hitachi model: HTS725032A9A364 
  size: 298.09 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s 
  type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> rev: C72E scheme: MBR 
  ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO M.2 500GB 
  size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
  type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 2B6Q scheme: GPT 
  Message: No optical or floppy data found. 
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 459.58 GiB size: 451.29 GiB (98.20%) 
  used: 334.32 GiB (74.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2 
  label: N/A uuid: f4cd7d11-eb6b-47f8-be58-9586d3348a2b 
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) 
  used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 
  label: NO_LABEL uuid: 8208-5A46 
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 17.07 GiB used: 666.5 MiB (3.8%) 
  priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3 label: swap 
  uuid: 77b21125-1ca6-4683-86fb-4888298b67da 
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 size: 350 MiB fs: ntfs 
  label: \xd0\x97\xd0\xb0\xd1\x80\xd0\xb5\xd0\xb7\xd0\xb5\xd1\x80\xd0\xb2\xd0\xb8\xd1\x80\xd0\xbe\xd0\xb2\xd0\xb0\xd0\xbd\xd0\xbe \xd1\x81\xd0\xb8\xd1\x81\xd1\x82\xd0\xb5\xd0\xbc\xd0\xbe\xd0\xb9 
  uuid: D85CDD4B5CDD24D2 
  ID-2: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 size: 96.38 GiB fs: ntfs label: N/A 
  uuid: FA908FB3908F7543 
  ID-3: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3 size: 450 MiB fs: ntfs label: N/A 
  uuid: 041C874D1C8738A6 
  ID-4: /dev/sda4 maj-min: 8:4 size: 1 KiB fs: <superuser required> label: N/A 
  uuid: N/A 
  ID-5: /dev/sda5 maj-min: 8:5 size: 200.92 GiB fs: ntfs label: FILES 
  uuid: EEB411FFB411CACB 
  ID-6: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17 size: 465.76 GiB fs: ntfs label: N/A 
  uuid: 01D6F6903B2A26B0 
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 10 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900 
  Device-1: 1-5:2 info: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb 
  interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:0029 
  class-ID: e001 
  Device-2: 1-6:3 info: ASUSTek AURA LED Controller type: HID 
  driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 16mA 
  chip-ID: 0b05:1939 class-ID: 0300 serial: <filter> 
  Hub-2: 1-7:4 info: Genesys Logic Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s 
  power: 100mA chip-ID: 05e3:0610 class-ID: 0900 
  Device-1: 1-8:5 info: Logitech USB Receiver type: Keyboard,Mouse,HID 
  driver: logitech-djreceiver,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s 
  power: 98mA chip-ID: 046d:c53f class-ID: 0300 
  Device-2: 1-9:6 info: Kingston HyperX Alloy Origins Core type: Keyboard,HID 
  driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s 
  power: 500mA chip-ID: 0951:16e6 class-ID: 0300 
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s 
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-4: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-5: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s 
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-6: 5-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 
  speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900 
  Hub-7: 6-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s 
  chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 49.9 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 49 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 34% 
Info:
  Processes: 338 Uptime: 4h 51m wakeups: 11 Init: systemd v: 249 
  tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 Packages: 1345 pacman: 1333 lib: 390 
  flatpak: 0 snap: 12 Shell: Zsh v: 5.8 default: Bash v: 5.1.8 
  running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.06 

And here are my Compositor Settings:

1 Like

:+1: Welcome to Manjaro! :+1:

  1. Please read this:
    How to provide good information
    and press the three dots below your post and press the :pencil2: to give us more information so we can see what’s really going on.
    Now we know the symptom of the disease, but we need some more probing to know where the origin lies… :grin:
  2. An inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width would be the minimum required information for us to be able to help you. (Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command)
    Also, please copy-paste that output in-between 3 backticks ``` at the beginning and end of the code/text.
  3. What are your Compositor settings in your System settings?
    (Especially the “Block compositor” settings)

:+1:

P.S. If you want to notify me that you did provide this information, please :heart: this message and I’ll come back and have another look.

1 Like

Thanks for the response. I adjusted the post as per your suggestion.

  • Kernel 5.13 is EOL so please install both 5.4 and 5.10 LTS (Long Term Support) and see which one of the two troubles you least.

:crossed_fingers:

1 Like

Kernel change did not fix or change anything about the black screen issues in fullscreen games.

1 Like

What’s the output of the terminal if you run these games there and switch to full-screen?

:thinking:

Sooo. I unchecked the “Allow applications to block compositing” in the compositor settings, and it worked. Thanks for pointing me towards that.

I’m not sure if this is actually the proper solution, but given that it works for me, I say it’s good enough.

The frequent crashes with CS:GO I will probably attribute to Valve being Valve, as other games consistently run perfectly fine.

1 Like

Some people say it is good to have application being able to block compositor, but from my experience it doesn’t increase game performance, but it breaks the desktop for sure (especially the taskbar, the time stops, icons don’t refresh, thing like that).

2 Likes

Therefore, I’ve marked this answer as the solution to your question as it is by far the best answer you’ll get.

However, if you disagree with my choice, please feel free to take any other answer as the solution to your question or even remove the solution altogether: You are in control! (If you disagree with my choice, just send me a personal message and explain why I shouldn’t have done this or :heart: or :+1: if you agree)

:innocent:
P.S. In the future, please don’t forget to come back to your question after your issue has been solved and click the 3 dots below the answer to mark a solution like this below the answer that helped you most:
Solution
so that the next person that has the exact same problem you just had will benefit from your post as well as your question will now be in the “solved” status.

1 Like

Hmm, interesting observation.
I just enabled it again, and it seems to actually improve my gaming performance. Tested on GhostRunner and having the option on resulted in having less stutters.

1 Like

I’ve tested it with and without in GZDoom and I do lose a few FPS, so on low-end GPUs I can imagine this to be the difference between a smooth and non-smooth experience…

(as usual: it depends on the specific system setup and the needs of the user)

:grin:

1 Like

I found a way to toggle it with Alt + Shift + F12, and toggling it during gameplay shows the difference.

1 Like

So you have a solution that is very specific for your games and system setup!

:+1:

1 Like

Is it possible that some sort of “overlay” that goes on top of (in my case) games could result in the game window not being rendered and that to cause the Black screen effect ?

I guess I’ll toggle the setting whenever I encounter the problem :smiley: . So yeah, “solved” one way or another.

1 Like

I just tested it again and when enabling/disabling it, in a ‘controlled environment’ in a specific game, I can actually notice roughly a 1 to 3 percent difference in FPS (a few FPS difference at around 250 FPS, but it fluctuates back kinda to the same FPS afterwards), but that realistically doesn’t change anything on my system. But if it makes a big difference on your side, sure do as it works best.

1 Like

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