VRR-ooM

Activate VRR for AMD GPU Linux Cinnamon (X11) systems w/ toggle script

-This will remove Muffin from global mesa blacklist, turn VRR to true, and provide a toggle script that alows user to run script and reboot (afterwards a relog is enough) in order to turn VRR on/off

⚠️ FLASH WARNING ⚠️

Muffin/Cinnamon have been added to mesa blacklist because some monitors may start flickering or show odd behavior with VRR on. If you are experiencing this please revert steps or timeshift.

-Please make a timeshift snapshot (backup) before starting this guide.

Download instructions

Copy vrr-backup folder to your home directory (/home/yourusername/)

For manual instructions

1. Create a folder in /home/yourusername/ and name it vrr-backup

2. Download all files and place them in folder you just made ~/home/yourusername/vrr-backup/

   -click on each file and to the right of where it says raw click download raw file

Make Backups!

Make a timeshift backup first!

Did you make the timeshift snapshot?

Then skip to bottom and read possible ways your system can break before continuing

Backup files that will be replaced by comands. (running install commands will completly replace those files)

-Run these commands in terminal to backup the files

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf.backup 2>/dev/null || echo "No existing AMD config to backup"

and

cp ~/.drirc ~/.drirc.backup 2>/dev/null || echo "No existing ~/.drirc to backup"

Installation

1. Make sure vrr-backup folder is in your home directory (/home/yourusername/) with all needed files.

2. Run all commands to copy files into place (copy/paste into terminal)

sudo cp ~/vrr-backup/20-amdgpu.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/
cp ~/vrr-backup/drirc-minimal.conf ~/.drirc
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
cp ~/vrr-backup/vrr-safe-toggle ~/.local/bin/
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/vrr-safe-toggle

3. Reboot.

After reboot VRR should be functionally on

-you can verify if VRR is working by checking your monitor's OSD (it should fluctuate)

To turn VRR off run script (paste into terminal)

vrr-safe-toggle

And then relog for changes to take effect

Restore original files

-If no drirc file existed before then you can remove the one added in this readme

rm ~/.drirc 2>/dev/null

To restore original AMD config from backup

sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf.backup /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf 2>/dev/null

To restore orignal drirc from backup

mv ~/.drirc.backup ~/.drirc 2>/dev/null

Recovery

To get to TTY for recovery

• ctrl + alt + F4 (if F4 is not working try F1-F6)
• enter username and password

Here you can timeshift or restore files from backup using "restore original files from backup commands"

Timeshift commands

1. sudo timeshift --list -will show a list of timeshift snapshot

2. sudo timeshift --restore -this will show the same list as above but you will need to then type a number (not name)

3. Type the number of the timeshift snapshot you want to restore and hit enter

4. It will ask if you want to restore; type yes

5. It will ask about Grub. Accept default option (yes) then hit enter

6. Select drive for Grub

   -Leagacy/bios mode: Grub should be installed to the device

   -UEFI mode: Grub should be installed to the EFI System Partition

7. Do not interrupt restoration process

   -Your pc might go to sleep if left unattended depending on settings and this will interrupt the process!

8. Once finished it will reboot

Possible ways system can break

1. You already have a custom /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amdgpu.conf

   -sudo cp will overwrite your existing config

   -If the orignal file contained essential options those are lost

   -As a result Xorg may fail to start (black screen), 2nd monitor stops working, GPU perforamce degrades,or screen tearing appears.

2. You already have a non-trivial ~/.drirc

   -the command cp ~/vrr-backup/drirc-minimal.conf ~/.drirc overwrites the existing file

   -As a result any game-spefic workarounds or mesa options will be lost

3. You are not using an amd gpu driver (eg, Intel, NVIDIA, or an old AMD card with readeon driver)

   -The AMD-specific config file (20-amdgpu.conf) is placed in xorg.conf.d.

   -Xorg will try to apply option "VariableRefresh" to a non‑amdgpu device, which may be ignored or cause a parsing error, leading to Xorg failing to start.

   -This will result in Black Screen on boot (recoverable by restoring backup file from TTY)

4. If you use a different display manager or session

   -Toggle script restarts Cinnamon which may not work correctly or crash.

• You can try recovery steps above if you get black screen