---
name: About
about: Hybrid-GPU laptop: X.com display flashing in Chromium caused by Omarchy's global LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=nvidia
title: 'Display flashing in Chromium on X.com on hybrid Intel+NVIDIA laptop (LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=nvidia forces NVIDIA VA-API while Chromium renders on iGPU)'
labels: bug
assignees: ''
---

## Summary

On a hybrid-graphics laptop (Intel iGPU driving the display, NVIDIA dGPU in Hybrid mode via supergfxd), Chromium exhibits rapid display flashing/flickering **only on x.com (Twitter)**. The browser window content strobes repeatedly while video autoplays in the feed.

## Root cause

Omarchy's Hyprland config (`/usr/share/omarchy/default/hypr/nvidia.lua`) exports session-wide env vars when an NVIDIA GPU is detected:

```
NVD_BACKEND=direct
LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=nvidia
__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia
```

These vars are appropriate for single-GPU NVIDIA systems, but on a **hybrid** laptop in Hybrid mode they leak into Chromium (and every other app). Chromium's GPU process renders on the Intel iGPU (`--render-node-override=/dev/dri/renderD128`), but `LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=nvidia` forces its hardware video decoder through the NVIDIA VA-API path (`libva-nvidia-driver`/NVDEC on `renderD129`). The decoded frames must then be imported back to the iGPU compositor, and that cross-GPU buffer import fails on every video frame:

```
ERROR: ui/gl/angle_platform_impl.cc(47)] ImageEGL.cpp:118 (operator()): eglCreateImage failed with 0x00003009   (EGL_BAD_MATCH)
ERROR: ui/ozone/common/native_pixmap_egl_binding.cc(76)] Unable to initialize binding from pixmap
ERROR: gpu/command_buffer/service/shared_image/ozone_image_backing.cc(317)] OzoneImageBacking::ProduceSkiaGanesh failed to create GL representation
ERROR: gpu/command_buffer/service/shared_image/shared_image_manager.cc(269)] SharedImageManager::ProduceSkia: Trying to produce a Skia representation from an incompatible backing: CompoundImageBacking
```

~4,500 of these errors accumulated in ~3 minutes of an X.com feed scroll — one per video frame attempt. Each failed import visually manifests as a flash. The user session journal (`journalctl --user`) shows the identical error signature from Chromium on x.com only; other sites' video and apps are unaffected or less noticeable because X.com autoplays many back-to-back videos while scrolling.

## System info

- Omarchy 4.0.1-1, kernel 7.1.9-arch1-2
- Chromium 151.0.7922.173 (Arch package), Wayland/ozone-wayland, Hyprland 0.56.2
- CPU: Intel Tiger Lake-H (iGPU: UHD Graphics, `i915`), dGPU: NVIDIA GTX 1650 Mobile (TU117M)
- NVIDIA driver: nvidia-open-dkms 610.57.04, `nvidia-drm.modeset=1`, GSP firmware loaded
- supergfxd 5.2.7 in **Hybrid** mode (dGPU on-demand; iGPU drives display)
- libva-nvidia-driver 0.0.17, intel-media-driver 26.2.4 installed

## Reproduction

1. Omarchy on hybrid Intel+NVIDIA laptop, supergfxd in Hybrid mode (iGPU drives display).
2. Open Chromium with X.com feed with autoplaying video.
3. Observe rapid flashing of the browser window while videos play/scroll.

Console check: `journalctl --user -b | grep 'eglCreateImage failed'` fills with `0x00003009` while the flashing occurs.

## Verified fix / workaround

Override the VA-API driver back to the Intel one **for Chromium only** (no root, no session-wide change):

```bash
env LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=iHD chromium
```

With this env override, flashing stops completely and the identical X.com scroll/video session produces **zero** `eglCreateImage` errors. Hardware decode still works (via intel-media-driver on the iGPU that renders the display).

## Suggested fix in Omarchy

`nvidia.lua` should not set `LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=nvidia` (and arguably not `NVD_BACKEND`/`__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME` session-wide) when supergfxd is in **Hybrid** mode and the iGPU is driving the display. Possible approaches:

1. Detect the active graphics mode (e.g. `supergfxctl -g` == `Hybrid`) and skip the NVIDIA VA-API env vars in that case; or
2. Only export these vars when the NVIDIA GPU is the display-driving GPU (Integrated-mode-with-dGPU / dGPU-only setups), not in Hybrid.

Happy to test patches. Thanks for a great distro!