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IDProjectCategoryView StatusDate SubmittedLast Update
0009746Kali LinuxKali Package Bugpublic2026-06-15 14:312026-06-16 04:14
ReporterAlderson Elliot Assigned To 
PrioritynormalSeverityminorReproducibilityhave not tried
Status newResolutionopen 
Summary0009746: nvidia 550.163.01 causes kernel NULL pointer dereference in drm_gem_lock on kernel 6.19.11
Description

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
Driver: nvidia 550.163.01
Kernel affected: 6.19.11 (also tested 6.19.14 — same crash)
Kernel stable: 6.18.12 (no issue)

  • WHAT HAPPENS

On boot with kernel 6.19.x, the nvidia_drm module triggers a NULL pointer
dereference inside drm_gem_lock() during the framebuffer damage worker
(drm_fb_helper_damage_work). The crash occurs at early display initialization,
before LightDM can start, making the system unusable with a graphical session.

The crash is consistent and 100% reproducible on this hardware with kernel 6.19.x.
Reverting to 6.18.12 resolves it immediately.

  • CRASH SUMMARY

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0x00000000000000f8
RIP: drm_gem_lock+0x9/0x20 [drm]
Workqueue: events drm_fb_helper_damage_work [drm_kms_helper]
Tainted: P OE (proprietary + out-of-tree + unsigned nvidia modules)

Call Trace:
drm_client_buffer_vmap_local [drm]
drm_fbdev_ttm_helper_fb_dirty [drm_ttm_helper]
drm_fb_helper_damage_work [drm_kms_helper]

Full oops log attached.

  • WORKAROUND

apt-mark hold linux-image-6.19.11 linux-image-6.19.14 linux-image-amd64
Boot pinned to 6.18.12 via GRUB saved_entry.

  • QUESTION FOR MAINTAINERS

Is there a planned fix or timeline for this incompatibility between
nvidia 550 and kernel 6.19.x in Kali?

Specifically:
-Will Kali delay shipping kernel 6.19.x as default until a compatible nvidia driver (>= 580?) is available in the repos?
-Or is the recommended path to wait for nvidia 580+ to land in kali-rolling and then test again?

Currently keeping kernel 6.18.12 pinned as workaround, but would like to know if this is expected to be resolved upstream or requires action on the Kali packaging side.

Thanks.

  • ADDITIONAL NOTES

-Tested kernel parameter nvidia_drm.fbdev=0 on 6.19.14: crash still occurs at runtime.
-Issue is in the interaction between nvidia_drm and the new drm_gem_lock() locking API introduced/changed in 6.19 — the gem object pointer is NULL when drm_fb_helper tries to vmap the framebuffer client buffer.
-nvidia-persistenced enabled (rules out GPU init race as cause).
-This is likely an upstream compatibility issue between nvidia 550 closed driver and the drm subsystem changes in kernel 6.19.

Attached Files
kali-6.19.11-drm_gem_lock-oops.txt (4,459 bytes)    
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: nvidia 0000:01:00.0: [drm] fb0: nvidia-drmdrmfb frame buffer device
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000000f8
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: PGD 0 P4D 0 
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 273 Comm: kworker/2:1 Tainted: P           OE       6.19.11+kali-amd64 #1 PREEMPT(lazy)  Kali 6.19.11-1kali1 
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: Tainted: [P]=PROPRIETARY_MODULE, [O]=OOT_MODULE, [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: Hardware name: ASUS System Product Name/ROG STRIX Z490-F GAMING, BIOS 3201 11/20/2024
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: Workqueue: events drm_fb_helper_damage_work [drm_kms_helper]
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: RIP: 0010:drm_gem_lock+0x9/0x20 [drm]
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: Code: e9 3c d2 01 00 90 66 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 f3 0f 1e fa 0f 1f 44 00 00 <48> 8b bf f8 00 00 00 31 f6 e9 89 b6 d3 dd 66 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: RSP: 0018:ffffd03c00747d68 EFLAGS: 00010282
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: RAX: ffff8e75885da720 RBX: ffff8e7564ae1780 RCX: 00000000ffffffff
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: RDX: ffff8e75412bb700 RSI: ffffd03c00747dd0 RDI: 0000000000000000
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: RBP: ffffd03c00747d90 R08: 0000000000000014 R09: 0000000000000004
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: R10: ffff8e7584db5280 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 0000000000000000
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: R13: ffffd03c00747dd0 R14: ffff8e75810b9800 R15: ffff8e7564ae1780
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8e7cede27000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: CR2: 00000000000000f8 CR3: 0000000102e09004 CR4: 00000000007706f0
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: PKRU: 55555554
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: Call Trace:
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  <TASK>
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  drm_client_buffer_vmap_local+0x2f/0x80 [drm]
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  drm_fbdev_ttm_helper_fb_dirty+0xae/0xa10 [drm_ttm_helper]
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  drm_fb_helper_damage_work+0xe9/0x1a0 [drm_kms_helper]
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  process_one_work+0x192/0x350
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  worker_thread+0x196/0x300
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  kthread+0xfc/0x240
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  ret_from_fork+0x24d/0x290
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel:  </TASK>
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: Modules linked in: nvidia_drm(POE) drm_ttm_helper ttm drm_client_lib drm_kms_helper nvidia_modeset(POE) video wmi nvidia(POE) drm
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: CR2: 00000000000000f8
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: RIP: 0010:drm_gem_lock+0x9/0x20 [drm]
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: Code: e9 3c d2 01 00 90 66 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 f3 0f 1e fa 0f 1f 44 00 00 <48> 8b bf f8 00 00 00 31 f6 e9 89 b6 d3 dd 66 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: RSP: 0018:ffffd03c00747d68 EFLAGS: 00010282
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: RAX: ffff8e75885da720 RBX: ffff8e7564ae1780 RCX: 00000000ffffffff
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: RDX: ffff8e75412bb700 RSI: ffffd03c00747dd0 RDI: 0000000000000000
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: RBP: ffffd03c00747d90 R08: 0000000000000014 R09: 0000000000000004
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: R10: ffff8e7584db5280 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 0000000000000000
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: R13: ffffd03c00747dd0 R14: ffff8e75810b9800 R15: ffff8e7564ae1780
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8e7cede27000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: CR2: 00000000000000f8 CR3: 0000000102e09004 CR4: 00000000007706f0
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: PKRU: 55555554
apr 23 21:12:38 kali kernel: note: kworker/2:1[273] exited with irqs disabled
kali-6.19.11-drm_gem_lock-oops.txt (4,459 bytes)   

Activities

kali-bugreport

kali-bugreport

2026-06-15 22:17

reporter   ~0021769

Last edited: 2026-06-15 22:22

You shall report/discuss this to/with the devs of the kernel and/or driver at their bugtracker, not to Kali (they are stating regularly here they can't debug/help with kernel issues) :-)
arnaudr

arnaudr

2026-06-16 04:14

manager   ~0021771

We're very likely to release Kali 2026.2 with kernel 6.19, so you will have to keep pinning an old kernel until this is fixed.

This is not something we fix ourselves. You can try to report it upstream to the linux kernel. Otherwise just keep trying new kernels or new nvidia drivers as they land in the repo, until it works.

Sorry that we can't do better than that :/

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
2026-06-15 14:31 Alderson Elliot New Issue
2026-06-15 14:31 Alderson Elliot File Added: kali-6.19.11-drm_gem_lock-oops.txt
2026-06-15 22:17 kali-bugreport Note Added: 0021769
2026-06-15 22:22 kali-bugreport Note Edited: 0021769
2026-06-16 04:14 arnaudr Note Added: 0021771