Hello,
I’m reporting a default configuration issue affecting Bazzite with NVIDIA GPUs on GNOME Wayland, specifically related to screen blanking (DPMS).
This is not a suspend issue, but a display power-management problem.
Summary of the problem
On GNOME Wayland + NVIDIA, when the system becomes idle and the screen is turned off (DPMS):
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The system does not suspend
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Input devices still work
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However, the display does not recover when activity resumes
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The result is a persistent black screen, often requiring a reboot or TTY switch
This is a well-known NVIDIA + Wayland issue, reproducible on multiple systems and monitors.
Why this is a problem in Bazzite specifically
Bazzite correctly disables suspend by default on NVIDIA systems to avoid instability.
However:
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Screen blanking (DPMS) remains enabled
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This leads to a failure mode that looks like a system crash
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From a user perspective, this is worse than suspend failing, because the session becomes unrecoverable
In other words:
Suspend was correctly considered unsafe — but DPMS was left enabled even though it triggers a similarly critical failure.
Why this should be handled at the distro level
This is not an upstream GNOME or NVIDIA bug report.
This is about safe defaults.
Bazzite already:
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Adjusts systemd targets
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Masks services
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Applies opinionated defaults for stability
Given that:
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GNOME Wayland + NVIDIA cannot reliably restore the display after DPMS
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The failure mode is a black screen with no user feedback
It would be safer to disable screen blanking by default on NVIDIA systems, just like suspend is already disabled.
Proposed default behavior (NVIDIA + GNOME Wayland)
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Disable idle screen blanking:
org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay = 0 -
Keep suspend disabled by default
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Allow users to re-enable these features manually if desired
Optionally:
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Document this limitation clearly
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Or apply it conditionally only on NVIDIA systems
Why this matters
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A black screen on wake is perceived as a system crash
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Forces hard reboot
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Risks data loss
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Violates the principle of fail-safe defaults
If a feature cannot recover reliably, it should not be enabled by default.
Closing
This isn’t about assigning blame to GNOME or NVIDIA, or any of the Bazzite Developers.
It’s about protecting users from a known failure mode by applying conservative defaults — something Bazzite already does very well in other areas.
Thanks for your work on the project, and I hope this feedback is useful.