Arch Linux

plrigaux

Member

Registered: 2025-03-25

Posts: 14

[SOLVED] Gnome application freezes on x11 settings with 2 monitors

Hello,

I want to share my share my experience about some application freezes when I was compiling and running my opensource application SysD Manager (AUR).

I opened an issue at GTK and found out that freeze happened when I use 2 monitors and the display backend was set to x11 by default.

To solve my issue I can either shut down one of my monitor (which make me sad) or force the display backend to Wayland by setting the environmental variable to GDK_BACKEND=wayland.

My question: To force Wayland throughout out my Desktop (Gnome), where on Arch/Linux the GDK_BACKEND  environmental variable is set?

Are there best practices regarding the GDK_BACKEND settings (or things to be careful about)?

Thank you

Last edited by plrigaux (2025-10-17 15:44:52)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,064

Re: [SOLVED] Gnome application freezes on x11 settings with 2 monitors

Archlinux does not set that variable by default and it generally should not be set globally by default but only in cases where the autodetection does something incorrect, or you know a certain application to behave better with it set.

Since this will be something you've set globally somewhere, peruse the potential locations: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Enviro … _variables

plrigaux

Member

Registered: 2025-03-25

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] Gnome application freezes on x11 settings with 2 monitors

I found my issue, or partly.

I'm developing with vscode and I run my program in the vscode terminal with the cargo run command. I found that an unknown setting set the environmental variable GDK_BACKEND=x11 in the vscode terminal. I found it by comparing the output of the env | grep -i -e x11 -e wayland command line in my Gnome default terminal and vscode terminal.

I still don't know what (extensions, settings, ...) set the environnemental variable, but I put this workaround in my vscode settings.json to fix it.

    "terminal.integrated.env.linux": {      
        "GDK_BACKEND" :null
    },