[610.43.02] Invalid HDR metadata (min_lum ≥ max_lum) passed through to Wayland compositor unfiltered, causing client termination; system-wide HDR also

Gaming and Visualization Technologies General Topics & Other SDKs Drivers - Linux, Windows, MacOS
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I’ve been troubleshooting this issue with AI and Google, and also have been in contact with KWin developer, for a few days now. Here is the issue:

Driver: 610.43.02
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
OS: CachyOS Linux (Arch-based)
Kernel: 7.0.12-1-cachyos (also reproduced on 6.18.35 LTS)
Desktop/Compositor: KDE Plasma 6.7.1, KWin, Wayland
Display: ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQDPG QD-OLED, HDR10, DisplayPort, 2560x1440@500Hz

Summary:

Two related HDR problems on driver 610.43.02 with a Wayland compositor (KWin). Both persist on Plasma 6.7.1, and Issue 2 is visible on the bare desktop with no application running, which points at the driver/HDR-output pipeline rather than any individual application.

Issue 1 — Invalid HDR metadata passed through unfiltered, crashing Wayland clients:

When an application submits HDR10 mastering-display metadata where minimum luminance ≥ maximum luminance, the NVIDIA driver passes this invalid metadata through to the Wayland compositor unchanged. Mesa’s WSI implementation filters out such invalid metadata before it reaches the compositor (reference: wsi_common_wayland.c), so AMD users are unaffected. On NVIDIA, the compositor receives the out-of-spec values and, per the Wayland color-management protocol, terminates the client connection.

Error observed (via Proton/Wine Wayland driver log):

[destroyed object]: error 5: min_lum can't be higher or equal to max_lum
err:waylanddrv:wayland_read_events_thread Failed to read events from the compositor, terminating process

The KWin maintainer has confirmed this is ultimately a driver-side issue — the driver should sanitize or clamp invalid luminance metadata rather than forwarding it. Reference: KDE bug 521952.

Reproduction (Issue 1):

  1. NVIDIA GPU, driver 610.43.02, Wayland compositor (KWin 6.7.1), HDR-capable display with HDR enabled.
  2. Launch an HDR title whose engine emits invalid HDR10 metadata (min ≥ max). Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (via Proton, PROTON_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 DXVK_HDR=1 ENABLE_HDR_WSI=1) is a reliable repro.
  3. Application crashes immediately on swapchain creation with the error above.

Issue 2 — System-wide HDR output severely crushed (desktop included):

With HDR enabled in the compositor, the entire output — including the bare desktop, with no application running — shows severely crushed blacks and incorrect tone mapping. Disabling HDR returns the desktop to correct colors. This occurs independent of any game or Proton layer, indicating the HDR output pipeline itself is affected. This coincides with the new DRM color pipeline support introduced in the 610 series; setting color_pipeline=0 on the nvidia-drm module did not resolve it.

Reproduction (Issue 2):

  1. NVIDIA GPU, driver 610.43.02, Wayland compositor, HDR-capable display.
  2. Enable HDR in the compositor’s display settings.
  3. Observe the desktop (no application needed): blacks are crushed and tone mapping is visibly wrong. Disabling HDR restores correct output.
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