Is there some way can I use eww with xorg flag in wayland ?

Succulent of your garden · 2026-02-02 18:26:42

So I decided to have a Wayland WM just in case, since I want to update my dwm with having some default backup.

So first of all:

But you can just go back to your previous state in your dwm, just compile again right ? Yep I can do that, but I want to just run quick hyprland if I need to do something quickly, yeah I know dwm compiles in less than 10 seconds, but It also an excuse to check how Hyprland is going on because of my failure in trying sway cuz I have nvidia gpu :C. so long story short: Excuses to try wayland and Hyprland again, and in the process create a wayland compositor alternative for my general usage just in case.

Long story short: I'm working in my status bar, but I also want to add it in my Hyprland setup, I'm working in the same machine having Xorg with dwm also. So i compiled eww with Xorg flag as this says: https://elkowar.github.io/eww/

So this creates issues in hyprland because when I want to run a widget:

WARN  eww > Eww compiled without wayland support. Falling back to X11, eventhough wayland was requested.
failed to open window `bar`

Caused by:
    Failed to get x11 window for gtk window

So According to this: https://wiki.hypr.land/Configuring/XWayland/ I tried this in my config file:

xwayland {
   enabled = true
   force_zero_scaling = true
 }

 env = GDK_SCALE,2
 env = XCURSOR_SIZE,32

but I'm having the error of before :C . So I have three options I guess:

1) Compile eww with wayland flag, which I don't want to do because I will lost the xorg support of my bar :C
2)Trying to run eww with xorg flag with Xwayland, which I want to try first.
3)Tweak the application building to have two binaries in the end that can work in a machine that have Xorg and wayland, and call the corresponding one in the .xinitrc and hyprland.conf. Not sure if this is a good idea in this case.

And btw: But workspaces switching code is going to be different in Xorg and wayland but that I cant comment the wayland part and deal with it during the development of both

Last edited by Succulent of your garden (2026-02-02 18:40:50)

seth · 2026-02-02 22:25:05

https://github.com/elkowar/eww/blob/fdd … o.toml#L13
Default seems to be to build for both backends?

Succulent of your garden · 2026-02-04 21:57:43

seth wrote:

https://github.com/elkowar/eww/blob/fdd … o.toml#L13
Default seems to be to build for both backends?

I'm astonish in how you are so quickly to find the useful information in git repos. Any method you use for that ? Or just pure years of experience in action ?

Sadly compiling with this forms it doesn't work:

cargo build --release --no-defaults-features --features default
cargo build --release --features default
cargo build  --release

You need to make your marry with --features x11 or --features wayland to make it work. If not eww doesn't show anything. So I complied both and put it in different file paths. then In .bashrc:

alias eww="~/eww/target/release/eww"
alias xeww="~/xeww/target/release/eww" #The xorg version of eww

and also

export PATH="~/eww/target/release:$PATH"
#Xorg eww
export PATH="~/xeww/target/release:$PATH"

When you invoke eww in wayland it works, compositor opens the widgets instantly. When I invoke it in xorg by startx it doesn't, But if I do in a terminal session:

xeww daemon
xeww open-many "my list of widgets"

Xorg session is able to launch the widget. So I think is startx script that doesn't read in some sense the env of the user shell by default. What do you think about this ? Should I just create a simple script with xeww daemon && xeww open-many "bla bla bla" and make it run it by .xinitrc file ? or you suggest a more wisely and elegant solution for my issue ?

Last edited by Succulent of your garden (2026-02-04 21:58:14)

seth · 2026-02-04 22:24:44

If not eww doesn't show anything.

On both, X11 and wayland?
Do you export GDK_BACKEND to any value and/or does doing so help anything?

So I think is startx script that doesn't read in some sense the env of the user shell by default.

Aliases are not expanded in non-interactive shells, for the PATH environment it depends on how and where you run startx
I'd however most like just opt for having and running two differently named binaries, rather than using aliases or fudging around w/ the PATH here.
But the best solution is to get the same eww to work on both display servers and that should™ not be a problem.

killertofus · 2026-02-04 23:40:06

instead of building it manually, use the aur package https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/eww

Succulent of your garden · 2026-02-09 21:36:11

Hi, I had been troubleshooting this more the last couple of days. So:

seth wrote:

'd however most like just opt for having and running two differently named binaries, rather than using aliases or fudging around w/ the PATH here.
But the best solution is to get the same eww to work on both display servers and that should™ not be a problem.

Yep, i think so. But there is a way to put the compiled binaries without using a PKGBUILD ? I mean, I made the compiling by myself. There is a way to add the two binaries with different names in pacman ?

killertofus wrote:

instead of building it manually, use the aur package https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/eww

That could be a way, but to be honest I'm trying to not use the AUR on this, if that's the last resources that I need to make, then I would install with the AUR on it. Just like to have few AUR package as far as I can go.

But now what I had been trying it's to run Hyrpland and see if by creating the systray with eww and or waybar it works. And neither of those works at the moment. The bars shows, bur waybar and eww, but the widgets that are made for the systray don't show. Nevertheless all the other bar show my stuff well. My only problem is with making the systray show the applications, both on Xorg and Wayland with hyrpland.

So i had read this https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XDG_Desktop_Portal this https://wiki.hypr.land/Nvidia/ this https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Hyprla … l-Hyprland and this https://wiki.hypr.land/Configuring/Envi … variables/

So I added all the XDG variables suggested by Hyprland and currnetly I'm having the list of pacakges installed in my system, some were before making the systray in waybar:

xdg-desktop-portal-hyrpland
xdg-desktop-portal 
hyprpolkitagent #Just in case
libappindicator
hicolor-icon-theme
nerd-fonts 
ttf-font-awesome

and my currently env and exec-once in hyprland.conf

env = GDK_SCALE,2
env = XCURSOR_SIZE,32
env = LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME,nvidia
env = __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME,nvidia
env = XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP, Hyprland
env = XDG_SESSION_TYPE, wayland
env = XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP, Hyprland


exec-once = systemctl --user start hyprpolkitagen
exec-once = hyprpaper
exec-once = hyprsunset

And I'm unable to show the systray icons, don't know why. Now I'm going to restart the machine just in case it works, but I'm mostly sure it wont :C

So it seems that hyprland is very like friendly to waybar, that includes the systray, in which I made the simplest one to just troubleshoot, and it doesn't works. So now I don't think that the issue is from eww necessarily, as my understanding the code should show something on the systray bar, but the waybar it just opens and empty transparent box at the moment :C

EDIT:

seth wrote:

On both, X11 and wayland?
Do you export GDK_BACKEND to any value and/or does doing so help anything?

Sorry seth, I forgot to answer this while writting, to much to have in mind . Yep as you can see in X11 and Wayland it doesn't works in eww, also waybar in wayland shows the same behavior.

I don't have the export GDB_BAKCEND declared in my .bashrc if that what you mean. What do you think about that ?

Last edited by Succulent of your garden (2026-02-09 21:41:27)

seth · 2026-02-10 10:11:13

Yep, i think so. But there is a way to put the compiled binaries without using a PKGBUILD ? I mean, I made the compiling by myself. There is a way to add the two binaries with different names in pacman ?

Why would you do anything w/ pacman if you're not usign a PKGBUILD??
Just "sudo install eww /usr/bin/eww" and "sudo install eww /usr/bin/exx" for the wayland and X11 variants?

widgets that are made for the systray

The ones using xembed have probably zero chance to work on wayland.
Make sure whatever you want to show up there supports https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specif … ifierItem/

dbus-send --session --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.DBus /org/freedesktop/DBus org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames | sed '/string/!d; s/^\s*string //g'

What do you think about that ?

What's the output of "printenv" in either environment?

Succulent of your garden · 2026-02-23 15:15:47

seth wrote:

Just "sudo install eww /usr/bin/eww" and "sudo install eww /usr/bin/exx" for the wayland and X11 variants?

Thanks I didn't knew that the install command exist, but I was kinda beliving that something like that should be in the operative system ^^

This:

 dbus-send --session --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.DBus /org/freedesktop/DBus org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames | sed '/string/!d; s/^\s*string //g'```

Give this output:

"org.freedesktop.DBus"
":1.0"
":1.1"
":1.2"
":1.3"
":1.6"
":1.7"
":1.8"
":1.9"
":1.10"
":1.11"
":1.12"
":1.13"
":1.14"
":1.15"
":1.16"
":1.17"
":1.18"
":1.19"
":1.22"
":1.24"
":1.25"
":1.29"
":1.36"
":1.37"
":1.50"
":1.51"
":1.52"
":1.56"
"ca.desrt.dconf"
"org.a11y.Bus"
"org.freedesktop.Notifications"
"org.freedesktop.StatusNotifierHost-1486-1"
"org.freedesktop.impl.portal.PermissionStore"
"org.freedesktop.impl.portal.desktop.gtk"
"org.freedesktop.impl.portal.desktop.hyprland"
"org.freedesktop.portal.Desktop"
"org.freedesktop.portal.Documents"
"org.freedesktop.systemd1"
"org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher"

I notice the org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher, which seems curious, now I'm at a wayland session by the way, probably is just a depency of Hyprland I guess, or is recycling the kde code for something else maybe.

In any case dunst is able to notify things, like when the browser finish a download of a file, it actually can trace the workspace when I'm at it and inform it, so i was thinking like: if the desktop notifier can do that why is not able to show the icons in the systray in this case ?

seth wrote:

What's the output of "printenv" in either environment?

The wayland session: https://paste.ofcode.org/xTAJDzATMP3gG3mrsPgMzA

The Xorg I'm gonna send it to you in the evening cuz I need to do some stuff and get out of home in a hour

seth · 2026-02-23 15:35:48

if the desktop notifier can do that why is not able to show the icons in the systray in this case ?

Because these are completely different things.

These are the important ones:
"org.freedesktop.StatusNotifierHost-1486-1"
"org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher"
Means the SNI systray icons should™ work.

Edit: you can use dbus-monitor to track them.

Last edited by seth (2026-02-23 15:36:18)

Arch Linux

#1 2026-02-02 18:26:42

Is there some way can I use eww with xorg flag in wayland ?

#2 2026-02-02 22:25:05

Re: Is there some way can I use eww with xorg flag in wayland ?

#3 2026-02-04 21:57:43

Re: Is there some way can I use eww with xorg flag in wayland ?

#4 2026-02-04 22:24:44

Re: Is there some way can I use eww with xorg flag in wayland ?

#5 2026-02-04 23:40:06

Re: Is there some way can I use eww with xorg flag in wayland ?

#6 2026-02-09 21:36:11

Re: Is there some way can I use eww with xorg flag in wayland ?

#7 2026-02-10 10:11:13

Re: Is there some way can I use eww with xorg flag in wayland ?

#8 2026-02-23 15:15:47

Re: Is there some way can I use eww with xorg flag in wayland ?

#9 2026-02-23 15:35:48

Re: Is there some way can I use eww with xorg flag in wayland ?

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