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Xorg & NVIDIA+Intel dual graphics: "flip queue failed: Invalid argument"

Symptoms

  • In Xorg.log:
    • flip queue failed: Invalid argument
    • Page flip failed: Invalid argument
    • present flip failed
  • The display freezes when using a fullscreen application (most commonly games) for from a few seconds to several minutes of use.

Cause

Discussed at-length in xserver issue #24.

Solutions

None.

Workarounds

Do not use fullscreen at all. Make sure game settings specify “windowed” not “fullscreen”.

Some games do not have the option at all, in which case using protontricks [steam game ID] winecfg and ticking enable virtual desktop can also work the same.

If your display freezes and you have SSH enabled on your workstation you can run:

pkill -9 -u [your username] ; killall -9 X ; systemctl restart display-manager

to get a working system without rebooting the entire machine.