What is Hyprland? [SOLVED]

madderhatter · 2023-05-05 03:53:11

Right now I'm running X, Picom, Qtile. I have 3 components that make up my desktop environment. I've read that Wayland will basically do the job of X and Picom but then I'm reading about Hyprland and it's almost like it's all three in one? I'm confused. The instructions say make is the right way to install Hyprland. I'm only familiar with make with something like paru but I'm already logged in as my user when I do that. Do I need to install and configure Wayland and then "make" Hyprland as my user? I appreciate any help understanding this.

From Hyprland:

CMake (recommended)

git clone --recursive https://github.com/hyprwm/Hyprland
cd Hyprland
sudo make install

CMake is always recommended as it’s the intended way Hyprland should be installed. Meson might have some imperfections, like e.g. overwriting wlroots headers or not installing Hyprland headers properly for plugin support

Last edited by madderhatter (2023-05-05 14:59:33)

Scimmia · 2023-05-05 04:02:06

Wayland works differently than X. There's no server and client WM, the WM is the compositor/server. Wayland itself is essentially a protocol and the library implementing that protocol.

If you want to use hyprland, you install it from the Community repo and run it. There's a wiki page about it that explains it.

Trilby · 2023-05-05 04:07:36

madderhatter wrote:

Right now I'm running X, Picom, Qtile. I have 3 components that make up my desktop environment. I've read that Wayland will basically do the job of X and Picom but then I'm reading about Hyprland and it's almost like it's all three in one?

"X" is vague. You are running Xorg which is one of the implementations of the X11 protocol. X11 cannot be run as it is not software, it is a protocol - or an idea. Xorg implements that protocol. In addition to that protocol implementation, one would also typically run a window manager though a WM is not strictly necessary. And in your case, you also have a X11 compositor which supplements the WM to provide compositing.

Wayland is comparable to X11. It is a protocol (an idea), it is not software*. Wayland compositors (such as hyprland) implement that protocol, but they also take on the jobs of window manager and compositing (which under X11 were three different bits of software).

Wayland is not an alternative to Xorg. Wayland is an alternative to X11. Hyprland is one of many alternatives to Xorg.

madderhatter wrote:

The instructions say make is the right way to install Hyprland.

Not here it doesn't.

*note: strictly speaking there is wayland software as libwayland. But there is very very little to this library, and it doesn't do anything on it's own. One might argue that libwayland could be compared to Xlib, but the comparison kinda falls apart here as Xlib does quite a lot while libwayland is much simpler.

Last edited by Trilby (2023-05-05 04:11:58)

madderhatter · 2023-05-05 04:18:48

Trilby wrote:

Not here it doesn't.

The Arch Way it is.

Yes I'm using Xorg thank you for the correction there. If I understood each of you correctly, Wayland correlates to X11 as far as they are both protocols.

Then it seems you are saying Hyprland, utilizing Wayland, correlates to Xorg, Picom, Qtile? Is that an accurate understanding?

Last edited by madderhatter (2023-05-05 04:19:36)

V1del · 2023-05-05 10:16:54

Basically, Hyperland speaks the protocol (Wayland) is the compositor (Picom) and the window manager (Qtile) in one. And this kind of constellation is true of all WMs using the wayland protocol as all of this is more tightly coupled to allow better/more direct control of the HW.

Trilby · 2023-05-05 12:16:51

The need for one bit of software to do all three jobs (that of Xorg, a WM, and a compositor) is also the result of wayland "correcting" one of the perceived downfalls of X11/XOrg. Under X11, any client could get all sorts of information about other clients, their windows, and their resources. This is a huge information leak which is argued to be a security issue. (example: X11 clients can quite easily draw all over other programs' windows without any permission if they wanted to).

Under wayland, clients don't get access to any such information - only the compositor itself can know anything about running clients. This seems nice for "security", of course then everyone realized this security needed to be relaxed in order to have a system they even wanted to use. For example, you can't have a taskbar or window switcher or any number of other tools common under X11 if one client cant get information about the other running clients (unless of course the compositor also became the window switcher, the taskbar, etc, etc, and given user's varied preferences this was impractical to say the least). So Wayland has a bunch of optional protocol extensions that a compositor can use to share this information. However, the wayland compositor (e.g., Hyprland) is now the gatekeeper for all such information. Clients still can't just freely grab any information about other clients - they must ask the compositor for the information, and the compositor can filter such requests as it sees fit.

The note above about how optional add-on protocols can allow programs other than the compositor to do some of these tasks also highlights that it is quite possible to have a separate server, compositor, and WM software under wayland. It's just not (or very very rarely) done. Weston had just a hint of such modularity: Weston is 100% the "server" and compositor, but through it's plugin system, other software could take on the role equivalent to a window manager. But I am not actually aware of any notable projects that did this, and every wayland compositor in use that I am aware of fulfills all three roles of "server"/compositor and window manager.

Also note that these three "roles" lose a bit in translation. There certainly are roles of compositing and window management that could be separated (as Weston kind of did). But the concept of a "server" is used in quotes as that is an X11 component that just really doesn't translate to wayland well as wayland is not a network protocol (while X11 is).

Last edited by Trilby (2023-05-05 12:44:28)

madderhatter · 2023-05-05 15:03:57

Thank each of you for your time and responses. Really excellent information! Definitely helped me understand the concepts. Have a great day!

Arch Linux

#1 2023-05-05 03:53:11

What is Hyprland? [SOLVED]

#2 2023-05-05 04:02:06

Re: What is Hyprland? [SOLVED]

#3 2023-05-05 04:07:36

Re: What is Hyprland? [SOLVED]

#4 2023-05-05 04:18:48

Re: What is Hyprland? [SOLVED]

#5 2023-05-05 10:16:54

Re: What is Hyprland? [SOLVED]

#6 2023-05-05 12:16:51

Re: What is Hyprland? [SOLVED]

#7 2023-05-05 15:03:57

Re: What is Hyprland? [SOLVED]

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