Display and HDMI

Everything about the picture: which modes the console's HDMI chip can drive, how to set them, and what to do when the screen stays black. Performance once there is a picture is on GPU.

The GPU does not drive the HDMI port directly. It sends DisplayPort to a separate HDMI chip, and the kernel programs that chip over I2C through the console's ICC for every mode. This page explains what the chip can do and what the PS5 patches do with it. The user-facing side (resolutions, black screens) is on Display output.

Where the patches live

HDR, CEC, hotplug, 4K120 over FRL with its fallback and ALLM are in upstream ps5-linux-patches and in rmuxnet's kernel. The VRR, mode, RGB range and link lock patches are PS5 Bazzite Deck only, in its patches/ folder; each file starts with a description of what it does. See Kernel setup.

The two HDMI chips

Chip	Consoles	Extras
FLAVA3	Most consoles	1440p at 120 Hz, 4K at 120 Hz over FRL, HDR, VRR
VERDE	Some later models	1080p60, 1080p120, 1440p60 and 4K60 only

Check which one you have:

sudo dmesg | grep "HDMI IC Type"

Why only certain modes exist

The chip has no general-purpose mode set. For each resolution it has a fixed setup: a mode index written to registers 0x7227 and 0x7070, a PHY configuration and a block of InfoFrame registers. The kernel replays Sony's setup for the mode the compositor asked for. A mode the chip has no setup for cannot be output, whatever the GPU or the display can do. That rules out 165 Hz, ultrawide resolutions and every other mode not in the table below.

The GPU feeds the chip over an internal DisplayPort link of four lanes at HBR3. That link is wide enough for every mode below, but the driver used to train it at the lowest rate a mode needs, and the chip sometimes failed to sync at those lower rates. ps5-hdmi-link-lock.patch trains it at the full rate for every mode; the same idea by hand is on Lock the display link.

Mode	Timing the chip expects	FLAVA3	VERDE	Status
1080p60	CEA VIC 16	✅	✅	Confirmed
1080p120	CEA VIC 63	✅	✅	Confirmed
1440p60	VESA DMT reduced blanking	✅	✅	Confirmed
1440p120	CVT-RB, same high-bandwidth setup as 4K60	✅	❌	Confirmed
4K60	CEA VIC 97	✅	✅	Confirmed
4K120	CEA VIC 118 over FRL, Sony's index 0x0b	✅	❌	Confirmed on some TVs, fails on others (see below)
1080p100, 1440p100, 4K100	VIC 64, CVT-RB, VIC 117 (index 0x0a)	⚠️	❌	Not tested: offered as an experiment only
165 Hz, ultrawide, anything else		❌	❌	Known not to work: no setup in the chip

ps5-hdmi-modes.patch offers these modes whenever the display's limits allow them, even if its EDID doesn't list them, drops the display's own 1440p variants (the chip only accepts the timing above), marks 1080p60 as preferred so a new display starts there, and skips modes a display accepts only as YCbCr 4:2:0. It also gives both 1440p syncs the standard polarity and shape on FLAVA3, because the chip shifts the picture by the pulse width when a polarity differs. ps5-hdmi-100hz-test.patch adds the 100 Hz modes.

VRR on FLAVA3

Confirmed at 4K60, 1080p120, 1440p60 and 1440p120 on HDMI VRR TVs. Not available on VERDE.

VRR did not work because of the GPU side, not the chip. Captures of what the PS5 OS sends narrowed it down. Three things have to be true at once:

1. A timing packet every frame. Sony's GPU sends the chip a DisplayPort extension SDP with header 39 04 carrying the source timing, from the adaptive-sync slot. On the chip it replaces amdgpu's FreeSync SDP. Without it the chip's follow mode gives a black picture.
2. DPCD 0x107 MSA-ignore bit kept clear. The chip drops its input lock when the bit is set, but follows a variable frame length with valid MSA.
3. Follow mode switched on step by step, only after the packet flows: registers 0x6064, 0x1047, 0x600c, 0x6224 and 0x6c07, 250 ms apart, plus a FreeSync SPD in the chip's SPD slot 0x7240 for the TV. The picture stays muted until the chip has switched over, so you see a short black instead of a drifting picture.

Three more rules come from testing:

• HDMI VRR only. The chip's follow mode is HDMI VRR. A monitor that announces only AMD FreeSync (no VRR range in its HDMI Forum block) resynced and blanked at every refresh change, so such displays are not offered VRR, the same as on the PS5 OS. The log says why.
• 48 Hz floor. TVs often announce 40 Hz as their minimum, where OLEDs flicker visibly. The range used never goes below 48 Hz, the PS5 OS's own floor: below it, frames are doubled at 120 Hz modes, and 60 Hz modes keep a fixed 60 Hz. A TV with a higher minimum keeps it.
• An open-ended maximum counts as HDMI VRR. Some TVs announce HDMI VRR with a minimum and VRRmax 0, which the HDMI specification defines as "up to the highest refresh rate". Early versions of the patch read that as "no HDMI VRR" and refused it; the current one takes the maximum from the FreeSync range, or 120 Hz. The range is also read from the HF-SCDB block that newer TVs use instead of the VSDB. The log says why a display is or isn't offered VRR.

Sources: ps5-vrr.patch, ps5-vrr-stock-setup.patch (the chip only follows when every setup includes Sony's full PHY tail and VSync block), ps5-vrr-min-48.patch, ps5-vrr-hdmi-only.patch, ps5-vrr-follow-guard.patch and ps5-vrr-hdmi-range.patch in the patches/ folder.

PS5 Bazzite Deck

Steam's VRR setting switches it. From a shell: gamescopectl adaptive_sync 0 (or 1) after exporting XDG_RUNTIME_DIR and GAMESCOPE_WAYLAND_DISPLAY=gamescope-0, see Display recovery.

4K120 over HDMI 2.1 FRL

Confirmed on several HDMI 2.1 TVs; fails on others that announce 4K120 but don't take the console's FRL link. FLAVA3 only.

The setup is Sony's own for its 4K120 mode (mode id 211 in the PS5 OS), ported from the console's kernel:

• VIC 118 gets Sony's mode index 0x0b and its own basic-config tail.
• After the PHY setup, the chip gets the "SCEI"/"PS5" SPD and an event sequence (0x30) that it runs by itself once the FRL link is up: AVI with the VIC, IT content, game content type.
• The additional config is the FRL variant: no TMDS scrambling or SCDC; the output is started in FRL mode and the chip trains the link itself.
• On the internal DP link, 4K120 travels as YCbCr 4:2:2, amdgpu's own fallback when RGB doesn't fit in four lanes at HBR3.

Because a TV that can't take the link was left black at every boot, there is a gate and a fallback:

• EDID gate. 4K120 is offered only when the display announces FRL at 4 lanes × 8 Gbps or more (HF-VSDB or HF-SCDB Max_FRL_Rate ≥ 4) and YCbCr 4:2:2, and the chip's own FRL report (bits 3:1 of byte 0 of its EDID notification) isn't 1 to 3.
• Link check. After a 4K120 setup, bit 6 of register 0x7019 (set while the chip sends FRL; 0x43 on a trained link) is polled for up to 6.5 seconds. If it never comes on, 4K120 is withheld for that display until a new EDID arrives, amdgpu switches to the same size at the highest refresh rate still offered, and userspace is told to re-probe.

A stuck TV: after a failed 4K120 attempt some TVs stay dark at every mode. Unplug the TV's power for a minute (standby isn't enough), then start the console again. hdmi.frl_4k120=0 in cmdline.txt stops 4K120 from being offered at all.

Session switches at 4K120: on some TVs, switching between Gaming Mode and the desktop while the output is 4K120 triggers a GPU fault. It is a compositor-side problem; keep the desktop at 4K60 and use 4K120 in Gaming Mode only. On a PS5 Pro a GPU fault is not recovered, see PS5 Pro.

Sources: ps5-hdmi-frl-4k120.patch and ps5-hdmi-4k120-guard.patch.

SCDC and TVs that drop to HDMI 1.4 modes

Some TVs announce their HDMI 2.1 EDID at boot and then, a few seconds after the console sets up 1080p60, re-announce an HDMI 1.4 EDID: 340 MHz, 4K only as 4:2:0, nothing above 60 Hz, no VRR. The cause is SCDC traffic the TV expects from an HDMI 2.x source. Two patches write it at every video setup for sinks that talk SCDC (an HDMI Forum VSDB with SCDC_Present, or 4K / 4:2:0 modes in the EDID); 1080p-only HDMI 1.4 TVs never get SCDC traffic.

Patch	Writes	Status
ps5-hdmi-scdc-source-version.patch	SCDC Source Version = 1, through the chip's DDC write descriptor at 0x7a80	Confirmed on a TV with the symptom
ps5-hdmi-scdc-tmds-config.patch	SCDC TMDS_Config at every setup, 0x00 when not scrambling, as a PC driver does	Not tested

RGB range

The GPU sends full-range RGB on the internal link, but the AVI InfoFrame's quantization field (PB3 bits Q1:Q0, chip register 0x7226 bits 3:2) stayed "default". TVs read "default" as limited for TV timings (1080p, 4K60) and as full for PC timings (1440p), so 1080p had crushed blacks while 1440p looked right. The driver now sends "full" explicitly for RGB output.

CTA-861 codes the field as 0 default, 1 limited, 2 full. A first version wrote the parameter value itself, so "1 = full" went out as limited and every resolution was too dark on TVs set to Auto. ps5-hdmi-rgb-range-encoding.patch maps the parameter to the right codes.

hdmi.rgb_range=1 is full (default), 2 limited, 0 sends no flag and lets the TV decide. VERDE consoles already declare full range and don't need this.

Kernel parameters

The display and HDMI parameters, with which kernel has which, are on Boot options.

Display settings

The HDMI port is driven by amdgpu through the console's HDMI chip, and a picture appears as soon as the driver loads. Wayland and X11 both work; the ready-made images use Wayland sessions. What the chip can and can't output, and why, is on Display and HDMI.

Supported resolutions

Resolution	Refresh rate	Consoles
1080p	60 Hz, 120 Hz	Every console
1440p	60 Hz	Every console
1440p	120 Hz	FLAVA3 HDMI chip
2160p (4K)	60 Hz	Every console
2160p (4K)	120 Hz	FLAVA3 HDMI chip, HDMI 2.1 TVs that accept the console's FRL link

HDR and VRR also need the FLAVA3 chip; VRR is PS5 Bazzite Deck only. Nothing else is possible: 30 Hz, 165 Hz, ultrawide and other resolutions have no setup in the HDMI chip, see Why only certain modes exist. Whether a mode is offered also depends on the display: the kernel reads its EDID and drops what the display doesn't accept.

tip

amdgpu.force_1080p=1 caps the refresh rate

Some images ship this parameter in cmdline.txt as a safety net. It isn't needed for most displays, and it limits the output to 1080p60, including on panels that could do 120 Hz. If you get a picture without it, leave it out; keep it only for a display that shows nothing otherwise, see Troubleshooting a black screen.

Monitors behave less predictably than TVs. 1440p and 4K at 60 Hz work on most, but some models show nothing at those modes, get no audio, or need a parameter change. The same model can also work for one person and stay black for another: panel revision, the monitor's firmware and the cable all play a part. If your monitor needs a particular setting, the HDMI driver's log says what it saw, see Display recovery.

Troubleshooting a black screen

The console is running but shows nothing?

If Linux is running (white LED) but you chose a mode your display can't show, see Display recovery to get a shell and change the mode by command.

Work down this list; stop as soon as you have a picture:

1. Remove video=DP-1:1920x1080@60 from cmdline.txt on the FAT32 partition.
2. Add amdgpu.force_1080p=1 to cmdline.txt.
3. Turn HDCP off in the PS5 settings (and if it was already off, turn it on): some displays only sync one way.
4. Try another cable, another HDMI input, or another display.
5. Put an HDMI-to-VGA adapter in between. It has worked on monitors that refuse the direct connection.
6. Switch TTY: Ctrl+Alt+F2, wait a few seconds, Ctrl+Alt+F1. Over SSH: sudo chvt 2; sleep 3; sudo chvt 1.
7. Check that HDMI Device Link is off in the PS5 settings, see Required PS5 settings.
8. Ask on Discord and include your EDID, see Decode the EDID.

Kernel-level fix (advanced): a black screen that survives everything above has been cured by taking three steps out of the HDMI driver's setup sequence in drivers/ps5/hdmi.c and rebuilding the kernel:

drivers/ps5/hdmi.c

// sceSetBackToUnpluggedSequence();
// sceSetBackToWaitResolutionSequence();
// In the FLAVA3 block: comment out i2c_cmd_4_2() and the sceSetEdid/sceSetWaitPll calls

See Kernel setup for how to rebuild.

Link training error (the most common cause)

Most black screens, across all kinds of displays, come down to one thing: the internal DisplayPort link between the GPU and the HDMI chip fails to train. dmesg shows:

amdgpu 0000:20:00.0: [drm] *ERROR* perform_8b_10b_clock_recovery_sequence: Link Training Error, could not get CR after 100 tries. Possibly voltage swing issue

Current kernels carry the fix (ps5-linux-patches commit fe852d3). Update before you try anything else on this page.

On a kernel you can't update yet, changing the resolution and changing it back retrains the link without a reboot: with kscreen-doctor (KDE), for example, switch to 1080p and then back a few seconds later. Lock the display link stops it from recurring.

Gamescope doesn't recover from a link training failure (SteamOS/CachyOS)

Symptoms: white LED, SSH works, Steam and Gamescope are running, but the display reports no signal (as opposed to a black picture), and dmesg repeats the link training error every minute or two.

Gamescope takes the DRM device during its first mode set, runs into the training failure and never probes the display again, not even after the HDMI driver has read the EDID (hdmi: got real edid in dmesg). Writing detect to /sys/class/drm/card0-DP-1/status doesn't help because Gamescope already holds the device.

There is no fix inside the Gamescope-based images for this. A desktop-based image (Ubuntu, for example) recovers by itself, and so does a kernel with the link training fix above.

4K display: black screen after login

If Linux boots but the screen turns black or blue after the login screen on a 4K display:

1. In the PS5 OS, go to Settings → Screen and Video → Video Output. Set the resolution to 2160p (4K), not Automatic, and disable 120 Hz.

2. Add your resolution to cmdline.txt on the FAT32 partition:

   video=HDMI-A-1:3840x2160@60

3. If the desktop still doesn't appear, SSH in and try another desktop environment: the problem can be in the session, not in the output.

Black screen when switching to desktop mode (SteamOS/Bazzite)

The system boots into Game Mode, but the screen flashes and goes black when you switch to Desktop Mode. dmesg may show:

[drm] Failed to add display topology, DTM TA is not initialized.

SSH in and force the desktop session:

steamos-session-select plasma

If it keeps happening, update the image first: newer builds have fixed it on their own. To avoid the switch altogether, start in the session you want. On PS5 Bazzite Deck, power off and start with the loader: from v2.6.1 it starts in Desktop Mode, without a switch (to change the default, see Game Mode and Desktop Mode). On other SteamOS-style images, see Boot to the desktop or Gaming Mode.

Black screen, but SSH works

If you can SSH in but the display stays black, collect logs. At minimum, check for missing or failed amdgpu firmware:

dmesg | grep -iE 'psp|ucode|firmware'
ls /lib/firmware/amdgpu/

Then create a full log dump as described in Troubleshooting and share it on Discord.

Custom EDID injection

When a display's EDID is not read or parsed correctly (it happens on some 4K and ultrawide displays), you can hand the kernel a known-good copy:

1. Dump the EDID from another PC. On Windows, use one of the free EDID tools. On Linux, run cat /sys/class/drm/card*/edid while the monitor is connected.

2. Copy the .bin file to /lib/firmware/edid/my_edid.bin on the Linux partition.

3. Add this to cmdline.txt:

   drm.edid_firmware=DP-1:edid/my_edid.bin

The connector name (DP-1 here) must match your output. Check /sys/class/drm/ for the exact name.

Capture cards

A capture card is just another display to the kernel, see Capture cards.

Picture and mode problems

• The desktop, Steam or a browser stay at 1080p: the HDMI driver marks 1080p at 60 Hz as the preferred mode, so the first start always has a picture, and the desktop keeps it until you choose another. Set the resolution and refresh rate in the desktop's display settings (on KDE, System Settings → Display & Monitor); Game Mode has its own in Steam's Settings → Display.
• Colours look washed out or too dark: set the TV's HDMI black level to match the console, see RGB range.
• No 120 Hz, 4K120 or VRR: these need the FLAVA3 HDMI chip and a display that supports them. HDMI 2.1 (FRL) is only used for 4K at 120 Hz (and 100 Hz); every other mode fits HDMI 2.0. On PS5 Bazzite Deck, sudo dmesg | grep -e 4K120 -e 'over FRL' shows whether your TV allows it (4K120 possible) and whether it is in use (3840x2160@120 over FRL).
• 100 Hz: PS5 Bazzite Deck v2.6.1 offers 1080p, 1440p and 4K at 100 Hz on FLAVA3 consoles with hdmi.modes_100hz=1 in cmdline.txt.
• VRR on PS5 Bazzite Deck: no "Enable VRR" option means a VERDE console, a display without HDMI VRR (FreeSync-only monitors), VRR turned off for that input on the TV, or an old release with a TV that announces no VRR maximum (update). If the screen goes dark for 2 seconds in menus, use VRR per game instead (quick access menu → Performance). OLED flicker on the desktop: set Adaptive Sync to Automatic, not Always.
• No picture after choosing a display mode: see Black screen and display recovery.
• The screen goes black in a game on a PS5 Pro, and SSH still works: see PS5 Pro.

Black screen and display recovery

When the console is running but the TV shows nothing (a wrong mode, or a mode the TV doesn't accept), you can still reach it and change the mode. This page works on any image; the parts that only apply to PS5 Bazzite Deck are marked.

1. Get a shell

With a keyboard on the PS5 (TTY): press Ctrl+Alt+F3 for a text login. To get back to the picture, press Ctrl+Alt+F1 or F2. If the TV shows nothing at all, the text console won't show either; use SSH instead.

Over the network (SSH): from a PC on the same network (Windows: PowerShell; macOS/Linux: a terminal):

ssh <user>@<console-ip>

The console's IP address is in your router's list of devices. See Get in over SSH for the default users per image.

Quick fix to try first: switching TTYs back and forth can bring the picture back. With a keyboard: Ctrl+Alt+F2, wait 2 to 3 seconds, then Ctrl+Alt+F1. Over SSH:

sudo chvt 2; sleep 3; sudo chvt 1

If the picture keeps dropping out, see Lock the display link.

2. Force a safe mode for one boot

amdgpu.force_1080p=1 in cmdline.txt only allows 1080p60, which every display accepts. Add it, power off, start with the loader, set the mode you want from the desktop, then remove it again. The commands find cmdline.txt on the boot partition (/boot/efi on most images, /efi on Bazzite):

E=$(for d in /boot/efi /efi; do sudo test -f $d/cmdline.txt && echo $d && break; done)
sudo sed -i 's/[[:space:]]*$/ amdgpu.force_1080p=1/' $E/cmdline.txt && sudo systemctl poweroff

Remove it again once a working mode is set:

E=$(for d in /boot/efi /efi; do sudo test -f $d/cmdline.txt && echo $d && break; done)
sudo sed -i 's/ *amdgpu\.force_1080p=1//' $E/cmdline.txt && sudo systemctl poweroff

For a failed 4K120 attempt only, add hdmi.frl_4k120=0 instead: that takes away only that mode, see HDMI chip.

3. Change the mode from a desktop

KDE: kscreen-doctor changes the mode directly. Over SSH, run this first:

export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$(id -u) DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/$(id -u)/bus

Then:

kscreen-doctor -o                                   # outputs and their modes (the HDMI output is DP-1)
kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.mode.3840x2160@60        # resolution@refresh rate
kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.hdr.disable              # HDR off (enable = on)
kscreen-doctor output.DP-1.vrrpolicy.never          # VRR off (automatic = only full-screen apps, always)

Unlike System Settings, kscreen-doctor applies the change straight away, without a "keep this mode?" question. Check the TV after each change; to undo, run it again with the previous mode.

GNOME and others: there is no equivalent command that works over SSH on every desktop. Use the safe mode above and change the resolution in the display settings once you have a picture.

PS5 Bazzite Deck: Game Mode

Game Mode takes its resolution from Steam's settings, which have no command; use the safe mode above. VRR can be switched from a shell:

export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$(id -u) GAMESCOPE_WAYLAND_DISPLAY=gamescope-0
gamescopectl adaptive_sync 0      # off (1 = on)

To switch to the desktop instead: steamos-session-select plasma (and back with steamos-session-select gamescope).

4. The TV itself

After a failed 4K120 attempt, some TVs stay dark at every mode. Unplug the TV's power for a minute (standby isn't enough), then start the console again.

Read the HDMI driver's log

The PS5 HDMI driver logs what the chip reported and what it set up. The lines that matter:

sudo dmesg | grep -i -e "hdmi" -e "VRR" -e "FRL" -e "re-arm" | tail -60

Line	Meaning
HDMI IC Type	FLAVA3 or VERDE, see HDMI chip.
hdmi: got real edid	The chip passed on the display's EDID. Until this appears, the kernel only knows a fallback.
PS5 VRR: available, range ... or not available (...)	Why VRR is or isn't offered.
4K120 lines	Whether the EDID gate passed and whether the FRL link came up.
Link Training Error, could not get CR	The internal DP link to the chip failed, see Lock the display link.

Decode the EDID

The EDID is what the display tells the console it can do. Dump it as base64 so it survives a paste into Discord:

sudo cat /sys/class/drm/card0-DP-1/edid | base64 -w0; echo

The HDMI chip's connector is DP-1. List the modes the kernel built from it:

cat /sys/class/drm/card0-DP-1/modes | sort | uniq -c

To read the EDID yourself, install edid-decode (package edid-decode on most distros) and run it on the binary:

sudo edid-decode /sys/class/drm/card0-DP-1/edid

Look for the HDMI Forum block (Max_FRL_Rate, VRRmin/VRRmax, SCDC_Present) and the maximum TMDS clock: they decide which modes and features the kernel offers, see Display and HDMI.

Reporting a display problem

For a black screen, a picture that blinks or reconnects, VRR that doesn't work, or a missing mode, send this information. It shows which modes your display offers (its EDID), what the console offered and chose, and what the HDMI chip did.

1. Get in as described above.

2. Make it happen: choose the mode or turn on the setting that fails (VRR, HDR, 4K120), wait about 15 seconds, then run this single line:

   F=~/display-log-$(date +%H%M).txt; { echo "== version"; cat /etc/ps5-bazzite-deck-version 2>/dev/null; cat /etc/os-release | head -2; uname -v; cat /proc/cmdline; echo "== EDID (base64)"; sudo cat /sys/class/drm/card0-DP-1/edid | base64 -w0; echo; echo "== modes offered"; cat /sys/class/drm/card0-DP-1/modes | sort | uniq -c; echo "== current mode and VRR"; sudo grep -E "crtc\[|enable=|active=|mode:|vrr_enabled" /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/state 2>/dev/null | head -20; echo "== HDMI chip"; sudo dmesg | grep -i -e "hdmi" -e "VRR" -e "FRL" -e "re-arm" | tail -60; echo "== compositor"; journalctl --user -b --no-pager -o cat 2>/dev/null | grep -i -e "drm:" -e "modeset" -e "vrr" -e "adaptive" -e "edid" | tail -40; } > $F 2>&1; E=$(for d in /boot/efi /efi; do sudo test -f $d/cmdline.txt && echo $d && break; done); sudo cp $F $E/ 2>/dev/null; echo "saved $F"

   It only reads. It saves display-log-<time>.txt in your home folder, plus a copy on the drive's small FAT32 partition, so without a network you can take it from there on a PC.

3. Get the picture back (see the sections above).

4. Post it on Discord (PS5 Bazzite Deck: #bazzite-problems on its Discord) with the file attached, and include:

   • the TV or monitor model, and which HDMI port and cable you use,
   • what you chose (resolution, refresh rate, VRR on/off, HDR on/off) and what you saw (black, blinking, reconnecting, wrong colours),
   • the display's own settings: VRR/FreeSync/Adaptive-Sync, HDMI enhanced format/Deep Colour, game mode,
   • whether it worked on an earlier release, and which one.

Display link lock

If the screen goes black after boot, or when the resolution changes, but Linux is still running (white LED, SSH works), the cause is often the link between the GPU and the HDMI converter. This page explains the cause and shows how to lock the link so it stays stable.

Not tested

This fix was reported on the official CachyOS image with an upstream kernel. It writes to debugfs, which is not a stable interface, so the path may change between kernels. Share your results on Discord.

Why it happens

The GPU does not output HDMI directly. It sends DisplayPort (DP) to an internal DP to HDMI converter. When you pick a mode below 4K, the driver can lower the link speed. The converter then fails to sync and the screen goes black. dmesg shows the same error as in Link training error:

[drm] *ERROR* perform_8b_10b_clock_recovery_sequence: Link Training Error, could not get CR after 100 tries

A kernel that includes the fix described there needs none of this. Use this page when you can't update the kernel yet, or when the black screen comes back.

Recover without a reboot

Try these in order. All of them need Linux to be running.

1. Switch the TV or monitor input away and back.

2. Switch TTY. Press Ctrl+Alt+F2, wait 2 to 3 seconds, then press Ctrl+Alt+F1. Repeat if needed.

3. Lock the link and force a hotplug. Run both lines on the PS5 (from tty2 or over SSH):

   echo "4 0x1e" | sudo tee /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/DP-1/link_settings
   echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/DP-1/trigger_hotplug

4. If the screen is still black, wait for hdmi: got real edid in dmesg, then run the hotplug line a second time.

4 0x1e means four lanes at HBR3, the highest link rate. On a KDE desktop a hotplug can make KWin lose the screen, so try the TTY switch first. Gamescope is not affected.

A USB keyboard may drop out

Switching TTYs can disconnect a USB keyboard or mouse. Unplug it and plug it in again.

Lock the link at every boot

A service that runs before the display manager starts keeps the link locked.

Create the script:

/usr/local/bin/dp-link-lock

#!/bin/sh
f=/sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/DP-1/link_settings
mountpoint -q /sys/kernel/debug || mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug
for i in $(seq 60); do [ -e "$f" ] && break; sleep 0.5; done
echo "4 0x1e" > "$f"

Create the service:

/etc/systemd/system/dp-link-lock.service

[Unit]
Description=Lock DP-1 link to 4x HBR3 (PS5 HDMI converter)
After=systemd-modules-load.service sys-kernel-debug.mount
Before=display-manager.service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/dp-link-lock

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Make the script executable and enable the service:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/dp-link-lock
sudo systemctl enable dp-link-lock

Reboot, then check the link:

cat /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/DP-1/link_settings

The output shows Preferred: 4 0x1e when the lock is active. A few CR errors and one warning trace in dmesg during boot are normal.

Use a safe mode as well

Keep video=DP-1:1920x1080@60 in cmdline.txt so the first mode set at boot is one every display accepts. Change the resolution from the desktop once Linux is running. See Kernel setup.