Arch Linux

charper_flow

Member

Registered: 2022-07-15

Posts: 34

Issues launching SWAY with no Display/log-in manager installed

Just to wrap my head around how everything works, I am trying to do an arch install  using nothing but what's necessary to launch a sway session. My original goal was to follow the guide posted here https://www.fosskers.ca/en/blog/wayland. Other than what is required to perform the install and the dependencies listed in my link (sway alacritty waybar wofi  xorg-xwayland xorg-xlsclients qt5-wayland glfw-wayland) I have nothing else installed on my system.

When I try to launch sway, I get a grey screen which is unresponsive (maybe it is being responsive but not being accurately displayed) to any of the keybindings except escape $mod+Shift+e. I know this is a common problem which has frequently been posted here, but I have tried all of those posts solutions, and while I am getting the same error, I think my root issue is different. Here is what I have tried so far:

(1) I have run the outputs of sway into a log file to ensure that it is opening the correct config file (~/.config/sway/config) and it is indeed opening the correct file. In fact the log file shows that it is reading in all the bindings successfully.
(2) I have launched sway with  sway -c </etc/sway/.config> and with the path to my local .config - same unresponsive results both times
(3) I have added the following script to my .bash_config

[ "$(tty)" = "/dev/tty1" ] ; then
    # Your environment variables
    export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland
    export MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1
    export MOZ_WEBRENDER=1
    export XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland
    export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=sway
    exec sway
fi

it worked, and launched sway as soon as I logged in, however, it was the same uresponsive sway

(4) I have made sure to add my user to the following groups: wheel audio input optical video and seat
(5) I have enabled  seatd.service

I think it is an issue with my SWAYSOCK variable. I am currently reading up in what this is, I know it holds the path to my socket but I am not entirely sure what all of that is....

I have read through a lot of the documentation to the best of my ability and am posting this here, because I am truly stumped. I am also posting this on another computer because the one I am installing arch on is still barely functional , therefore directly posting and uploading log files is hard, but I can dig around and post pictures if that's helpful.

My best guess is that by not installing any display managers I have missed some step to get my Wayland/sway set up to properly display windows? I was under the impression that all I needed was wayland and a compositor (sway).

charper_flow

Member

Registered: 2022-07-15

Posts: 34

Re: Issues launching SWAY with no Display/log-in manager installed

I  think I was able to resolve this issue. I had not added my video driver module info into mkinitcpio.conf, BUT I guess I also  do not know enough about setting up local environment variables to successfully launch a display server session. Using ly login manager seemed to magically make my problems go away. It would be satisfying to know exactly how the session gets launched and what is going on, but I guess I can settle for this solution for now.

If any other beginners out there are struggling to set up a simple wayland -sway set up feel free to message me. It's all pretty fresh in my head and i understand like 75% of whats happening in the set up!

EDIT: Nope got it working without any log-in manage !

Last edited by charper_flow (2022-07-16 02:51:46)

Brocellous

Member

Registered: 2017-11-27

Posts: 161

Re: Issues launching SWAY with no Display/log-in manager installed

That sounds like the expected behavior, though you should have a cursor. If you want more than a dull grey background you should configure a background image in the config or use an alternative background program. Sway execs swaybg to fulfill the config's output background command, which is why swaybg is required by the sway package.

If you want to do some actual work and launch applications you'll want some application launcher. The example configuration isn't really supposed to be used directly, you have to modify it, even if only to set your preferred background and terminal emulator.

EDIT:

also, XDG_SESSION_TYPE is set by sway via libseat, you shouldn't set it. MOZ_WEBRENDER also shouldn't be needed to enable webrender.

Last edited by Brocellous (2022-07-16 03:14:20)