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| releng:wayland_roadmap [2024/02/09 08:18] – [Overall Plans] alexxcons | releng:wayland_roadmap [2024/12/29 01:02] (current) – [Applications] xfce4-screenshooter andreldm |
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| * keep the possibility to run xfdesktop and xfce4-panel as separate components | * keep the possibility to run xfdesktop and xfce4-panel as separate components |
| * Prevent dependency on libgnome-desktop | * Prevent dependency on libgnome-desktop |
| * xfce4-panel and xfdesktop have been ported to Wayland considering our compositor will be based on wlroots. There is also an [[https://github.com/adlocode/xfwm4/tree/wayland|unofficial port of xfwm4]] in progress. | * xfce4-panel and xfdesktop have been ported to Wayland assuming our compositor will be based on wlroots. |
| | * We plan to port xfwm4 to Wayland using wlroots but it will only be for Xfce 4.22 at best. |
| * Keep X11 compatibility for the foreseeable future | * Keep X11 compatibility for the foreseeable future |
| * Nvidia support to Wayland is still problematic, one more reason to keep X11 backward compatibility (nouveau driver usually is slower) | * Nvidia support to Wayland is still problematic, one more reason to keep X11 backward compatibility (nouveau driver usually is slower) |
| * Wayland compositors which were written from scratch like Weston or sway will never run as a x11 window manager. But others which started as x11 window managers such as kwin or mutter still keep their x11 window management code | * Wayland compositors which were written from scratch like Weston or sway will never run as a x11 window manager. But others which started as x11 window managers such as kwin or mutter still keep their x11 window management code |
| * We do not have the resources to maintain our own Wayland compositor | * FreeBSD has decent [[https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/wayland/|support]] for Wayland, OpenBSD is still [[https://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon2023-matthieu-wayland-openbsd.pdf|working on supporting]] Wayland |
| * FreeBSD provides https://hikari.acmelabs.space, not sure what is the situation for OpenBSD (possibly libinput missing?) | |
| |
| ---- | ---- |
| | xfce4-appfinder | yes | | | | xfce4-appfinder | yes | | |
| | [[#xfce4-panel]] | yes | See below | | | [[#xfce4-panel]] | yes | See below | |
| | xfce4-session | no | | | | | xfce4-session | yes | See [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-session/-/merge_requests/49|xfce4-session!49]] about limitations and how to use it | |
| | [[#xfce4-settings]] | yes | See below | | | [[#xfce4-settings]] | yes | See below | |
| | xfconf | yes | | | | xfconf | yes | | |
| === xfce4-panel === | === xfce4-panel === |
| |
| * Port to Wayland done: https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/-/merge_requests/103 | * Port to Wayland done: [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/-/merge_requests/103|xfce4-panel!103]] |
| * Wlroots-based, targeted compositors: Labwc, Wayfire | * Wlroots-based, targeted compositors: Labwc, Wayfire |
| * On Wayland the panel cannot use GtkSocket/GtkPlug any more to run plugins as external (separate processes). Initially, to advance in the porting of other features, it is enough to run them as internal (same process as the panel, so the crash of a plugin causes the panel to crash). If we want to get this back "natively" afterwards, it seems that we'll have to make the panel a Wayland compositor to some extent ([[https://wayland.freedesktop.org/docs/html/ch02.html#sect-Compositors-Embedding-Compositor|Embedding Compositor]], see also [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland-protocols/-/issues/74|Allow embedding foreign wl_surfaces]]). For the moment the socket/plug structure has been reproduced on Wayland using the layer-shell protocol and D-Bus, which, although not native, has the merit of simplicity and of reusing what exists (more details [[https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce4-dev/2022-October/033092.html|here]]). | * On Wayland the panel cannot use GtkSocket/GtkPlug any more to run plugins as external (separate processes). Initially, to advance in the porting of other features, it is enough to run them as internal (same process as the panel, so the crash of a plugin causes the panel to crash). If we want to get this back "natively" afterwards, it seems that we'll have to make the panel a Wayland compositor to some extent ([[https://wayland.freedesktop.org/docs/html/ch02.html#sect-Compositors-Embedding-Compositor|Embedding Compositor]], see also [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland-protocols/-/issues/74|Allow embedding foreign wl_surfaces]]). For the moment the socket/plug structure has been reproduced on Wayland using the layer-shell protocol and D-Bus, which, although not native, has the merit of simplicity and of reusing what exists (more details [[https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce4-dev/2022-October/033092.html|here]]). |
| === xfdesktop === | === xfdesktop === |
| |
| * Port to Wayland done: https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/-/merge_requests/43 | * Port to Wayland done: [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/-/merge_requests/43|xfdesktop!43]] |
| * Workspaces support needs an X11/Wayland abstraction, and could use the wlr-workspace-unstable-v1 protocol on Wayland. | * Workspaces support needs an X11/Wayland abstraction, and could use the wlr-workspace-unstable-v1 protocol on Wayland. |
| * Listing all toplevel windows (windowlist menu, window icons on desktop) needs an X11/Wayland abstraction, and could use the wlr-foreign-toplevel-management-unstable-v1 protocol on Wayland. | * Listing all toplevel windows (windowlist menu, window icons on desktop) needs an X11/Wayland abstraction, and could use the wlr-foreign-toplevel-management-unstable-v1 protocol on Wayland. |
| === xfce4-power-manager === | === xfce4-power-manager === |
| |
| * Port to Wayland done: https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-power-manager/-/merge_requests/54 | * Port to Wayland done: [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-power-manager/-/merge_requests/54|xfce4-power-manager!54]] |
| * The essential features of user inactivity monitoring and display power management have been restored via protocols [[https://wayland.app/protocols/ext-idle-notify-v1|ext-idle-notify]] and [[https://wayland.app/protocols/wlr-output-power-management-unstable-v1|wlr-output-power-management]]. | * The essential features of user inactivity monitoring and display power management have been restored via protocols [[https://wayland.app/protocols/ext-idle-notify-v1|ext-idle-notify]] and [[https://wayland.app/protocols/wlr-output-power-management-unstable-v1|wlr-output-power-management]]. |
| * There's no real counterpart to brightness management (the [[https://wayland.app/protocols/wlr-gamma-control-unstable-v1|wlr-gamma-control]] protocol offers similar functionality in appearance, but in fact has nothing to do with power saving), but the existing Polkit implementation works independently of the windowing environment. | * There's no real counterpart to brightness management (the [[https://wayland.app/protocols/wlr-gamma-control-unstable-v1|wlr-gamma-control]] protocol offers similar functionality in appearance, but in fact has nothing to do with power saving), but the existing Polkit implementation works independently of the windowing environment. |
| |
| ^ Component ^ Wayland Support ^ Remarks ^ | ^ Component ^ Wayland Support ^ Remarks ^ |
| | xfce4-terminal | yes | drop-down requires layer-shell to work properly: [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-terminal/-/merge_requests/72|!72]] | | | xfce4-terminal | yes | drop-down requires layer-shell to work properly [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-terminal/-/merge_requests/72|xfce4-terminal!72]] | |
| | mousepad | yes | | | | mousepad | yes | | |
| | [[#xfce4-notifyd]] | yes | | | | [[#xfce4-notifyd]] | yes | | |
| | xfdashboard | no | crash on startup | | | xfdashboard | no | crash on startup | |
| | xfce4-taskmanager | yes | no libwnck (appicons, [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-taskmanager/-/issues/75|#75]]), no "identify window", no systray icon ([[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-taskmanager/-/issues/78|#78]]) | | | xfce4-taskmanager | yes | no libwnck (appicons, [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-taskmanager/-/issues/75|xfce4-taskmanager#75]]), no "identify window", no systray icon ([[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-taskmanager/-/issues/78|xfce4-taskmanager#78]]) | |
| | xfce4-mixer | yes | | | | xfce4-mixer | yes | | |
| | ristretto | yes | | | | ristretto | yes | | |
| | catfish | yes | | | | catfish | yes | | |
| | xfburn | yes | | | | xfburn | yes | | |
| | parole | yes | no systray icon ([[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/parole/-/issues/126|#126]]) | | | parole | yes | player window is not embedded ([[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/parole/-/issues/134|parole#134]]), no systray icon ([[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/parole/-/issues/126|parole#126]]) | |
| | [[#xfce4-screenshooter]] | no | crash after region is selected ([[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-screenshooter/-/issues/46|#46]]), see below | | | [[#xfce4-screenshooter]] | yes | partial, see below | |
| | xfce4-screensaver | no | Port to Wayland is essentially done [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-screensaver/-/merge_requests/28|xfce4-screensaver!28]] \\ But this requires [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/kelnos/libwlembed|libwlembed]], which is still experimental and has no release at this stage (2024-02-04) | | | xfce4-screensaver | no | Port to Wayland is essentially done [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-screensaver/-/merge_requests/28|xfce4-screensaver!28]] \\ But this requires [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/kelnos/libwlembed|libwlembed]], which is still experimental and has no release at this stage (2024-02-04) | |
| | xfmpc | yes | | | | xfmpc | yes | | |
| === xfce4-screenshooter === | === xfce4-screenshooter === |
| |
| Wayland does not specify a native interface for the compositor for taking screenshots and it [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland/-/issues/32|looks like]] it never will. | Originally Wayland wasn't meant to have protocols allowing screenshots ([[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland/-/issues/32|see here]]), that is about to change with [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots/-/merge_requests/4545|new proposed protocols]]. In the meantime we decided to use wlroots' [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlr-protocols/-/blob/master/unstable/wlr-screencopy-unstable-v1.xml|screencopy protocol]] because that's probably what our compositor will support. |
| |
| So for xfce4-screenshooter there are the following options: | At the moment only Entire Screen screenshots are supported ([[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-screenshooter/-/merge_requests/52|xfce4-screenshooter!52]]), Rectangle Selection will be implemented next but Active Window is going to be much trickier, perhaps we'll need a custom protocol for our compositor to take care of that. |
| * Add support for the wlroots screencopy protocol | |
| * [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlr-protocols/-/blob/master/unstable/wlr-screencopy-unstable-v1.xml|wlr-screencopy-unstable-v1.xml]] | If we want to support compositors that don't implement the protocols mentioned above, we have to add DBus Support for [[https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal|org.freedesktop.portal.Screenshot]]. This however is not planned and it's unlikely we'll ever fully support other compositors. |
| * Our compositor will very likely support this protocol | |
| * If we want to support compositors that don't implement the protocol above, we have to add DBus Support for [[https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal|org.freedesktop.portal.Screenshot]], namely: | |
| * [[https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/xdg-desktop-portal-gnome|xdg-desktop-portal-gnome]] | |
| * [[https://github.com/KDE/xdg-desktop-portal-kde|xdg-desktop-portal-kde]] | |
| |
| ---- | ---- |
| ==== Panel Plugins ==== | ==== Panel Plugins ==== |
| |
| See details in the **[[#xfce4-panel]]** section about how to run external plugins on Wayland. At first, "works" below simply means "doesn't crash", even after some elementary manipulations (eventually). It does not mean that everything works like on X11. | See details in the **[[#xfce4-panel]]** section about how to run external plugins on Wayland. At first, "yes" below simply means "doesn't crash", even after some elementary manipulations (eventually). It does not mean that everything works like on X11. |
| | |
| The tests below were performed on 2022-10-12 by building from git-master for each plugin. | |
| |
| ^ Component ^ Wayland Support ^ Remarks ^ | ^ Component ^ Wayland Support ^ Remarks ^ |
| | xfce4-cpufreq-plugin | yes | | | | xfce4-cpufreq-plugin | yes | | |
| | xfce4-cpugraph-plugin | yes | | | | xfce4-cpugraph-plugin | yes | | |
| | xfce4-datetime-plugin | yes | | | |
| | xfce4-diskperf-plugin | yes | | | | xfce4-diskperf-plugin | yes | | |
| | xfce4-docklike-plugin | no | crashes (Libwnck) | | | xfce4-docklike-plugin | yes | Requires libxfce4windowing 4.19.3 | |
| | xfce4-embed-plugin | no | unmaintained, gtk2 | | | xfce4-embed-plugin | no | unmaintained, gtk2 | |
| | xfce4-eyes-plugin | yes | the pointer is not followed outside the panel | | | xfce4-eyes-plugin | yes | the pointer is not followed outside the panel | |
| | xfce4-sensors-plugin | yes | | | | xfce4-sensors-plugin | yes | | |
| | xfce4-smartbookmark-plugin | yes | insensitive text entry | | | xfce4-smartbookmark-plugin | yes | insensitive text entry | |
| | xfce4-statusnotifier-plugin | no | crashes (gdk_x11 code, merged in systray plugin since 4.15.4 anyway) | | |
| | xfce4-stopwatch-plugin | yes | | | | xfce4-stopwatch-plugin | yes | | |
| | xfce4-systemload-plugin | yes | | | | xfce4-systemload-plugin | yes | | |
| | xfce4-weather-plugin | yes | | | | xfce4-weather-plugin | yes | | |
| | xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin | yes | icons issue, menu window floating | | | xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin | yes | icons issue, menu window floating | |
| | xfce4-windowck-plugin | no | does not work (Libwnck) | | | xfce4-windowck-plugin | no | [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/panel-plugins/xfce4-windowck-plugin/-/issues/37|to be fixed]], exits early and removes itself on Wayland for now | |
| | xfce4-xkb-plugin | no | crashes (Libwnck) | | | xfce4-xkb-plugin | no | Non-portable to Wayland in the near future, exits early and removes itself for now | |
| |
| ---- | ---- |
| ===== Testing ===== | ===== Testing ===== |
| |
| Info about testing specific components. | Regarding the version to test: master, or latest dev release would be best. If you don't test master, best add info on which version you tested. |
| | |
| Regarding the version to test: master, or latest dev release would be best, though latest stable release as well will do. Currently there is not much difference for most components. If you don't test master, best add info on which version you tested. | |
| |
| If you run a NVidia GPU, you will need to use the "Nouveau" driver for testing, Since the proprietary NVidia driver does not provide Wayland support. (Though some things might work in some cases) | If you run a NVidia GPU, you will need to use the "Nouveau" driver for testing, Since the proprietary NVidia driver does not provide Wayland support. (Though some things might work in some cases) |
| |
| ==== Native Wayland ==== | A wlroots compositor is almost a prerequisite for most core components (as well as panel plugins and some apps), at least to ensure that all features ported to Wayland are available. The default compositor is labwc, but wayfire is another wlroots compositor on which tests have generally been carried out. |
| * Install Weston with your distribution package manager (if a Wlroots-based compositor is required, as for **[[#xfce4-panel]]**, see [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/-/merge_requests/103|this MR]] for more information) | |
| * Maybe set a minimal configuration, for example <file ini ~/.config/weston.ini>[keyboard] | To start an Xfce session on Wayland, you can run ''startxfce4 %%--%%wayland'' from a tty, which will launch xfce4-session from labwc. If you want to use wayfire instead, you'll need to run ''startxfce4 %%--%%wayland wayfire'' and add this configuration first, as wayfire doesn't have a ''%%--%%startup'' option like labwc (see ''startxfce4 %%--%%help'' for details): |
| keymap_layout=fr | <file ini ~/.config/wayfire.ini> |
| numlock-on=true | [autostart] |
| | session = xfce4-session |
| </file> | </file> |
| * Run ''weston'' in a terminal emulator, or better: in a tty with a different user, or by logging out of the X11 session first (the compositor may not have quite the same behavior, and this avoids interactions with the current environment) | |
| * If run in a terminal emulator, make sure at least the component to test isn't already running in your X11 session (e.g Thunar as daemon) | Configuration adaptations may be required for other compositors as well, if they also don't have a ''%%--%%startup'' option to pass to startxfce4. |
| * Open a terminal in the Weston session and start the component which is to be tested | |
| | A ''@datadir@/wayland-sessions/xfce-wayland.desktop'' file has also been added to xfce4-session for display managers, such as lightdm, with which this has been tested. The command line must also be modified in this file to use a compositor other than the default one. |
| |
| ---- | ---- |