Arch Linux

Dowefu

Member

Registered: 2014-03-25

Posts: 68

GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

Hi.

As far as I understand, beginning with GNOME 3.20, the default graphical backend is Weston. However, for some reason, Weston doesn't start on my system and Xorg is used instead (as it was conceived by maintainers).

How can I know what exactly prevents Weston to start itself on my system? Do I need to configure something? May be I need some packages to install? (At this time, there is absolutely no information about these things or, at least, it's outdated.)

Thanks.

GNOME 3.20; Weston 1.10; NVIDIA 361.28

blackout23

Member

Registered: 2011-11-16

Posts: 781

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

Weston has nothing to do with GNOME. Weston is the reference Wayland compositor. Mutter (the Gnome compositor/window manager) has its own Wayland implementation.
You won't have any luck with the closed source NVIDIA drivers, since they don't support Wayland, yet. The 364 branch has initial support but they didn't implement GBM for buffer sharing, instead want to use EGLStreams for that so Wayland compositors have to
implement their interface to make it work. Right now there are only a couple of patches for Weston posted by NVIDIA developers. 
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/weston-eglstream
Needs 364 NVIDIA drivers as I said and needs modeset=1 set as parameter for nvidia-drm module and needs to be started with --use-egldevice parameter.

ooo

Member

Registered: 2013-04-10

Posts: 1,638

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

weston is not a graphical backend, you're talking about wayland

Xorg is still the default backend on 3.20, as wayland backend is still not feature complete, even though it should work for most users. Wayland has been default backend for GDM since 3.18 though.

Nvidia just recently added support for wayland on their drivers, so it should work. You could try if weston-launch works for you.

I'm also unable to start gnome 3.20 on wayland backend for some reason that I haven't yet figured out, even though it worked fine on 3.18. I have no issues with weston either.

blackout23

Member

Registered: 2011-11-16

Posts: 781

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

weston is not a graphical backend, you're talking about wayland

Xorg is still the default backend on 3.20, as wayland backend is still not feature complete, even though it should work for most users. Wayland has been default backend for GDM since 3.18 though.

Nvidia just recently added support for wayland on their drivers, so it should work. You could try if weston-launch works for you.

I'm also unable to start gnome 3.20 on wayland backend for some reason that I haven't yet figured out, even though it worked fine on 3.18. I have no issues with weston either.

As I said the Wayland support in the 364 drivers is useless without a compositor that uses their EGLStreams and EGLDevice stuff.
If you use nouveau or intel open source drivers you can start the Wayland session of GNOME by exporting XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland (in /etc/profile for example).

Dowefu

Member

Registered: 2014-03-25

Posts: 68

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

Got it. However, still not understand was my assumption true that 3.20 firstly try to use Wayland, fails, then use Xorg? If so, can I turn off this behaviour and use Xorg straight away?

ooo

Member

Registered: 2013-04-10

Posts: 1,638

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

I should've mentioned I don't use nvidia but intel, so I wasn't aware of all the details with closed source driver support. Also didn't see your post before I posted mine :)

Nevertheless, even on intel I'm unable to start gnome on wayland.
This worked on 3.18, but not any more. I also tried prepending the command with XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland with no luck.

gnome-session --session=gnome-wayland

This is the only error I'm getting:

Apr 10 15:44:18 ooo gnome-session[9961]: ** (gnome-session-failed:9968): WARNING **: Cannot open display:
Apr 10 15:44:18 ooo gnome-session[9961]: Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused

Also there's no option to start gnome on wayland on GDM as I believe there should be.

I'm not planning on ditching Xorg over wayland yet anyway, so this isn't a big deal for me, but if you have any ideas let me know :)

@Dowefu, As I said, gnome 3.20 still uses Xorg by default.
Only GDM tries to use wayland and switches to Xorg if that fails. There are instructions on how to change that behavior on GDM wiki page.

Dowefu

Member

Registered: 2014-03-25

Posts: 68

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

As it seems for me, setting `WaylandEnable=false` in `/etc/gdm/custom.conf` has no effect. GDM continue to start Wayland first. Is the option is outdated? Can someone approve or disprove this?

blackout23

Member

Registered: 2011-11-16

Posts: 781

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

I should've mentioned I don't use nvidia but intel, so I wasn't aware of all the details with closed source driver support. Also didn't see your post before I posted mine

Nevertheless, even on intel I'm unable to start gnome on wayland.
This worked on 3.18, but not any more. I also tried prepending the command with XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland with no luck.

gnome-session --session=gnome-wayland

This is the only error I'm getting:

Apr 10 15:44:18 ooo gnome-session[9961]: ** (gnome-session-failed:9968): WARNING **: Cannot open display:
Apr 10 15:44:18 ooo gnome-session[9961]: Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused

Also there's no option to start gnome on wayland on GDM as I believe there should be.

I'm not planning on ditching Xorg over wayland yet anyway, so this isn't a big deal for me, but if you have any ideas let me know

@Dowefu, As I said, gnome 3.20 still uses Xorg by default.
Only GDM tries to use wayland and switches to Xorg if that fails. There are instructions on how to change that behavior on GDM wiki page.

gnome-session --session=gnome-wayland is outdated. There is no gnome-wayland session anymore in /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions.
With 3.20 the XDG_SESSION_TYPE env variable determines this from what I read on GNOME IRC.
When I append "export XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland" to the end of /etc/profile and restart and use nouveau it uses the Wayland session. Also make sure that you have xorg-server-xwayland installed. GNOME needs this for some parts of the shell.

brittyazel

Member

From: Davis, CA

Registered: 2013-05-11

Posts: 163

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

As it seems for me, setting `WaylandEnable=false` in `/etc/gdm/custom.conf` has no effect. GDM continue to start Wayland first. Is the option is outdated? Can someone approve or disprove this?

This setting will still override GDM to start with X rather than Wayland in 3.20. From there just choose a normal "Gnome" environment and you should avoid Wayland completely

---

I don't really know what I'm doing.

Dowefu

Member

Registered: 2014-03-25

Posts: 68

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

This setting will still override GDM to start with X rather than Wayland in 3.20. From there just choose a normal "Gnome" environment and you should avoid Wayland completely

I can't see a dropdown menu at the GDM login screen from where I could select a session type. Am I missing something? Did they remove it?

brittyazel

Member

From: Davis, CA

Registered: 2013-05-11

Posts: 163

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

Nope still there. I don't know what you are seeing.

---

I don't really know what I'm doing.

Dowefu

Member

Registered: 2014-03-25

Posts: 68

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

Strange, but I don't have the gear icon at the GDM login screen. Don't understand what the problem could be...

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,544

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

What GTK3 theme?

Dowefu

Member

Registered: 2014-03-25

Posts: 68

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

The standard theme. I didn't change anything.

brittyazel

Member

From: Davis, CA

Registered: 2013-05-11

Posts: 163

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

Strange, but I don't have the gear icon at the GDM login screen. Don't understand what the problem could be...

From a fresh reboot your don't have any gear icon? That is really weird, and is not an issue that I experience. The only reason that I can think of the gear icon not showing is if GDM is deciding that your system is not eligible for Wayland (based on drives etc), and you also don't have the classic theme installed. In that case the icon may not show, as there are not other options for you to choose from.

What drivers are you using?

---

I don't really know what I'm doing.

Dowefu

Member

Registered: 2014-03-25

Posts: 68

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

NVIDIA 361.28.

Could you point out where exactly the icon should be. May be just the picture isn't displayed. I could try to click at that place in order to call the menu.

Chazza

Wiki Maintainer

Registered: 2013-06-02

Posts: 506

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

You should get something a bit like this.

It could well be that the gear button is invisible as you say - see this picture.

Last edited by Chazza (2016-04-10 18:20:18)

blackout23

Member

Registered: 2011-11-16

Posts: 781

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

NVIDIA 361.28.

Could you point out where exactly the icon should be. May be just the picture isn't displayed. I could try to click at that place in order to call the menu.

GDM probably hides it, because as I said NVIDIA doesn't support the Wayland implementation in GNOME.

Dowefu

Member

Registered: 2014-03-25

Posts: 68

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

GDM probably hides it, because as I said NVIDIA doesn't support the Wayland implementation in GNOME.

When you install a second DE, it should be in the menu, so that you can switch the DEs. I can install E17 for example in order to check is all ok or something wrong with GDM.

Dowefu

Member

Registered: 2014-03-25

Posts: 68

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

You should get something a bit like this.

It could well be that the gear button is invisible as you say - see this picture.

Ok, thanks. It's absent on my system, not invisible.

Spider.007

Member

Registered: 2004-06-20

Posts: 1,175

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

I have the same issue, I use an Intel card and have been happily using wayland for months, but no more.
Gnome 3.20 no longer shows the gear-icon on gdm; and I cannot find out how to enable this

This is even presented as a feature @ http://linux.softpedia.com/blog/gnome-3 … 7737.shtml

To our surprise, we've discovered that the GNOME devs managed to introduce quite a few things in GDM 3.19.2, such as the implementation of separate X11 and Wayland sessions, support for hiding the Wayland session if the login screen is powered by X11, as well as the removal of the "custom" session.

As my mouse doesn't work in gdm, I cannot check for the hidden gear, tab doesn't seem to find it.

export XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland

doesn't help.

Update: found it; /etc/gdm/custom.conf somehow contained WaylandEnable=false. I've commented this; that fixed it

Last edited by Spider.007 (2016-04-11 17:52:33)

letty

Member

Registered: 2015-01-03

Posts: 3

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

I am also missing the 'GNOME under Wayland' option since the Update to 3.20.
I can still see the Gear-Icon and the two options 'GNOME' and 'GNOME classic'.
How can I make the Wayland option reappear? or at least activate it manually?

Everything used to work under the previous GNOME version...
'GNOME on Wayland' is also shown in lightdm, only gdm does not seem to show it...

THX

Last edited by letty (2016-04-12 08:42:20)

sultanoswing

Member

Registered: 2008-07-23

Posts: 314

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

I find it hard to get overly excited about Wayland & Gnome-shell at this stage, since nautilus can't even display desktop icons under gnome-wayland.

Yes, I know it's hard to believe in 2016, when we've had desktop icons since the mid-1980's, that the latest & greatest desktop environment can't actually even display icons on the desktop. Bizzare but true.

Last edited by sultanoswing (2016-04-12 08:33:13)

---

6.5.3.arch1-1(x86_64) w/Gnome 44.4
Arch on: ASUS Pro-PRIME x470, AMD 5800X3D, AMD 6800XT, 32GB, | Intel NUC 7i5RYK | ASUS ux303ua | Surface Laptop

bulletmark

Member

From: Brisbane, Australia

Registered: 2013-10-22

Posts: 652

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

Yes, I know it's hard to believe in 2016, when we've had desktop icons since the mid-1980's, that the latest & greatest desktop environment can't actually even display icons on the desktop. Bizzare but true.

I find it hard to believe that anybody in 2016 still wants "desktop icons"! The desktop is a very sub-optimal "window" for managing files, folders, and apps. Thankfully that silly 80's desktop metaphor has been depreciated by most DE's.

-MacNuke-

Member

Registered: 2013-01-29

Posts: 24

Re: GNOME 3.20 through Wayland

Am I the only one where Alt+Tab is not working in a Wayland session?

Also... CSD is pretty annoying. mpv, sdl.. all without a title bar...

Last edited by -MacNuke- (2016-04-12 09:51:14)