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releng:wayland_roadmap [2024/12/04 09:46] – [Testing] gaelreleng:wayland_roadmap [2026/01/30 10:13] (current) – [Overall Plans] fix xfwl4 FAQ link kelnos
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 ===== Overall Plans ===== ===== Overall Plans =====
  
-For Xfce 4.20, the plan is, to add preliminary support to Wayland to core components without losing X11 support. This doesn't mean that by the next major release an Xfce session on Wayland will offer all existing features, but we hope it will be minimally usable. We also intend to continue refining our applications to work acceptably on Wayland (those that already work or can be made to work with low effort).+For Xfce 4.20, the plan was to add preliminary support to Wayland to core components without losing X11 support. This doesn't mean that by the next major release an Xfce session on Wayland will offer all existing features, but we hope it will be minimally usable. We also intend to continue refining our applications to work acceptably on Wayland (those that already work or can be made to work with low effort). 
 + 
 +For Xfce 4.22, the stabilization work continues. Reaching X11 feature parity is not yet our target. 
 + 
 +We are now working on our own [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/kelnos/xfwl4|Wayland compositor]].  It is very early, under heavy development, and not usable yet.  Please see [[/xfwl4_faq|its FAQ]] for further information.
  
 Check the table in the [[#component specific status]] section for details and labelled issues by group: Check the table in the [[#component specific status]] section for details and labelled issues by group:
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   * Do not depend on XWayland   * Do not depend on XWayland
     * No xsettings     * No xsettings
-  * Use wlroots over libmutter+  * Use smithay over wlroots and libmutter for our compositor
     * 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 assuming our compositor will be based on wlroots.     * xfce4-panel and xfdesktop have been ported to Wayland assuming our compositor will be based on wlroots.
-    * There is also an [[https://github.com/adlocode/xfwm4/tree/wayland|unofficial port of xfwm4]] in progress.+    * We plan to keep xfwm4 as X11-only, for Wayland a brand new compositor called xfwl4 was created.
   * 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
     * 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 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
 +    * We will archive this by having both a window manager (xfwm4/X11) and a compositor (xfwl4/wayland)
  
 ---- ----
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 === Core components === === Core components ===
  
-This table reflects the current status of what's released as 4.19 or git master.+This table reflects the current status of what's released as 4.21 or git master.
  
 ^ Component ^ Wayland Support ^ Remarks ^ ^ Component ^ Wayland Support ^ Remarks ^
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 | xfconf | yes | | | xfconf | yes | |
 | [[#xfdesktop]] | yes | See below | | [[#xfdesktop]] | yes | See below |
-| [[#xfwm4]] | no | |+| xfwm4 | not planned | xfwl4 will be its Wayland counterpart |
 | [[#xfce4-power-manager]] | yes | See below | | [[#xfce4-power-manager]] | yes | See below |
 | tumbler | yes | | | tumbler | yes | |
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   * 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.
- 
-=== xfwm4 === 
- 
-  * Unofficial port to Wayland in progress: https://github.com/adlocode/xfwm4/tree/wayland 
  
 === xfce4-settings === === xfce4-settings ===
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 | catfish | yes | | | catfish | yes | |
 | xfburn | yes | | | xfburn | yes | |
-| parole | yes | no systray icon ([[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/parole/-/issues/126|parole#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]] | yes | partial, see below |+| [[#xfce4-screenshooter]] | yes | Active Window not supported |
 | 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 | |
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 === 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. 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.+Entire Screen screenshot was initially [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-screenshooter/-/merge_requests/52|implemented]] using wlroots' [[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlr-protocols/-/blob/master/unstable/wlr-screencopy-unstable-v1.xml|screencopy protocol]]. Eventually support for ''ext-image-capture-source-v1'' and ''ext-image-copy-capture-v1'' was added. It's very likely that ''wlr-screencopy-unstable-v1'' (fallback) support will be dropped in the future.
  
-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.+Rectangle Selection was [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-screenshooter/-/merge_requests/80|implemented]] using gtk-layer-shell (''wlr_layer_shell_v1''). Active Window isn't possible with current protocols, perhaps we'll need a custom protocol for our compositor to take care of that.
  
-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]]. This however is not planned and it's unlikely we'll ever fully support other compositors.+Compositors that don't implement the protocols mentioned above will not be supported.
  
 ---- ----
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 | 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 |
  
 ---- ----
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 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. 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.
  
-To start an Xfce session on Wayland, you can run ''startxfce4 %%--%%wayland'' from a tty, which will launch xfce4-session from labwc. A ''@datadir@/wayland-sessions/xfce-wayland.desktop'' file has also been added for display managers, such as lightdm, with which this has been tested. +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):
- +
-If you want to use wayfire instead, you'll need to add this configuration first, as wayfire doesn't have a ''%%--%%startup'' option like labwc (see ''startxfce4 %%--%%help'' for details):+
 <file ini ~/.config/wayfire.ini> <file ini ~/.config/wayfire.ini>
 [autostart] [autostart]
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 </file> </file>
  
 +Configuration adaptations may be required for other compositors as well, if they also don't have a ''%%--%%startup'' option to pass to startxfce4.
  
-Configuration adaptations may be required for other compositors as well, if they also don't have a ''%%--%%startup'' option to pass to startxfce4.+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.
  
 ---- ----
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   * [[https://frontpagelinux.com/articles/a-deep-dive-into-the-wayland-protocol-for-linux|A deep dive into the wayland protocol]]   * [[https://frontpagelinux.com/articles/a-deep-dive-into-the-wayland-protocol-for-linux|A deep dive into the wayland protocol]]
   * [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/libxfce4ui/-/commit/57410e2dffde5271443809a0dbd0280be262ba47|Check if current display is a wayland display]]   * [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/libxfce4ui/-/commit/57410e2dffde5271443809a0dbd0280be262ba47|Check if current display is a wayland display]]
 +  * [[https://alexxcons.github.io/blogpost_15.html|Xfwl4 - The roadmap for a Xfce Wayland Compositor]]
  
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