Wayland display server protocol
Limitations
Some limitations still exist in a Wayland test session. On the one hand, you currently still need to use free graphics drivers because the proprietary drivers adapted to Wayland from AMD and Nvidia still aren't ready.
If you want to test Wayland in a virtual environment, VirtualBox isn't currently an option because the virtual graphics driver isn't yet adapted to Wayland. You'd have to use KVM or VMware Player instead.
Anyone who also habitually copies and pastes using the mouse will be disappointed because this feature isn't yet supported. It can also be a bit annoying that the mouse pointer sometimes needs a few seconds to respond, and you could also experience problems when operating multiple monitors.
All Gnome core packages have already been migrated to Wayland. Other applications such as Firefox are still using the XWayland interlayer [17]. I wasn't able to find any visible differences between native Wayland support and XWayland. The list of apps that still need XWayland (using the xlsclients
command) is not always complete.
Conclusions
The appearance of windows and menus is very clean and flicker-free compared with tests conducted six months ago. A Wayland session runs stably in normal operation, but you can also still make it crash in rare cases. This is where X11 usually steps in, but sometimes you are sent back to the login manager. If you can cope with the restrictions described here, you really have no reason not to use Wayland. And, you can report any errors to the developers at Gnome Bugzilla [18].
After seven years of development, Wayland is now in the final sprint to the finish line. The intention of making Wayland a default in Fedora 24 was perhaps a bold plan, given the lack of proprietary drivers, gaps in functionality, and many errors still to chase down. More should be known later in 2016. In any case, X11 will still be around for years – even when Wayland becomes the default in future distributions.
Infos
- Errors in X11: http://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-announce/2014-May/002431.html
- Shuttleworth on Wayland: http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/551
- Matthias Clasen blog: https://blogs.gnome.org/mclasen/2016/03/04/why-wayland-anyway/
- Display servers and UI toolkits, Shmuel Csaba Otto Traian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Desktop_Linux#/media/File:Free_and_open-source-software_display_servers_and_UI_toolkits.svg
- Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
- X/Wayland architectures: https://wayland.freedesktop.org/architecture.html
- XWayland: https://wayland.freedesktop.org/xserver.html
- evdev https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/evdev
- Scene graph: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scene_graph
- KMS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_setting
- DRI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Rendering_Infrastructure
- Linux graphics drivers, Shmuel Csaba Otto Traian: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Linux_graphics_drivers_DRI_Wayland.svg
- Wayland display server protocol: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wayland_display_server_protocol.svg
- Weston: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_(display_server_protocol)#Weston
- Atomic KMS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_setting#Atomic_Mode_Setting
- Libinput for Wayland compositors, ScotXW: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Libinput_for_Wayland_compositors.svg
- XWayland: http://wayland.freedesktop.org/xserver.html#heading_toc_j_0
- Bug reports: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/
« Previous 1 2 3
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Canonical Bumps LTS Support to 12 years
If you're worried that your Ubuntu LTS release won't be supported long enough to last, Canonical has a surprise for you in the form of 12 years of security coverage.
-
Fedora 40 Beta Released Soon
With the official release of Fedora 40 coming in April, it's almost time to download the beta and see what's new.
-
New Pentesting Distribution to Compete with Kali Linux
SnoopGod is now available for your testing needs
-
Juno Computers Launches Another Linux Laptop
If you're looking for a powerhouse laptop that runs Ubuntu, the Juno Computers Neptune 17 v6 should be on your radar.
-
ZorinOS 17.1 Released, Includes Improved Windows App Support
If you need or desire to run Windows applications on Linux, there's one distribution intent on making that easier for you and its new release further improves that feature.
-
Linux Market Share Surpasses 4% for the First Time
Look out Windows and macOS, Linux is on the rise and has even topped ChromeOS to become the fourth most widely used OS around the globe.
-
KDE’s Plasma 6 Officially Available
KDE’s Plasma 6.0 "Megarelease" has happened, and it's brimming with new features, polish, and performance.
-
Latest Version of Tails Unleashed
Tails 6.0 is based on Debian 12 and includes GNOME 43.
-
KDE Announces New Slimbook V with Plenty of Power and KDE’s Plasma 6
If you're a fan of KDE Plasma, you'll be thrilled to hear they've announced a new Slimbook with an AMD CPU and the latest version of KDE Plasma desktop.
-
Monthly Sponsorship Includes Early Access to elementary OS 8
If you want to get a glimpse of what's in the pipeline for elementary OS 8, just set up a monthly sponsorship to help fund its continued existence.