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Running Wayland Maker

If not done yet, please follow the detailled build instructions to build and install from source.

The commands below assume that dependencies and wlmaker were installed to ${HOME}/.local.

Once running: Press Ctrl-Window-Alt+T to open a terminal (foot), or Ctrl-Window-Alt+Q to exit.

Option 1: Run in a window

The most accessible option is to run Wayland Maker in a window in your already-running graphical environment. It can run both on a X11 or a Wayland session.

${HOME}/.local/bin/wlmaker

Option 2: Run from a Linux virtual terminal

Important

Make sure your distribution has seatd installed and running.

${HOME}/.local/bin/wlmaker

Note: You may need to su -c "pkill seatd" to stop seatd after you're done.

Option 3: Run as wayland session

Note

As of 2024-07-14, this appears to work only with Wayland-only display managers. gdm3 has been found to work, but lightdm did not.

Important

It is not yet recommended to run wlmaker as your only compositor. This approach will not work if dependencies are not all operating correctly, and is hardest to debug.

  • Copy ${HOME}/.local/share/wlmaker.desktop to /usr/share/wayland-sessions/wlmaker.desktop
  • Restart your session manager, to reload the sessions.

The desktop entry will execute ${HOME}/.local/bin/wlmaker.

Customize it!

  • etc/wlmaker.plist is the where keyboard options, key bindings, screensaver details and more can be configured. That file in the source tree is the compiled-in default.

    To extend: Create a copy of the file to /usr/share/wlmaker/wlmaker.plist or ~/.wlmaker.plist and modify it according to your needs. Or, move it somewhere else and call wlmaker with the --config_file=... arugment.

  • etc/style.plist is the compiled-in default theme. With etc/style-debian.plist, there is an alternative theme you can use -- or extend it on your own.

    Run wlmaker with --style_file=... to use an alternative style. Or create your own in /usr/share/wlmaker/style.plist or ~/.wlmaker-style.plist.

  • etc/root-menu.plist defines the contents of the root menu. To customize, copy to /usr/share/wlmaker/root-menu.plist, ~/wlmaker-root-menu.plist or provide via the --root_menu_file argument.

  • etc/wlmaker-state.plist stores state of dock and clip. To customize, copy to /usr/share/wlmaker/state.plist, ~/wlmaker-state.plist or provide via the --state_file argument.

  • To run X11 applications in Wayland Maker, XWayland must be enabled. It is compiled in, if the xwayland package is installed. In that case, use the --start_xwayland option. The DISPLAY environment variable will be set suitably.

  • To make Wayland Maker look well on a high-resolution screen, you can either set the Output Scale in etc/wlmaker.plist (and use --config_file=...). This will scale all surfaces.

    Or, you can configure the style with larger decorations & fonts, as is done in etc/style-debian.plist. That approach will not scale application surfaces.

Debugging issues

Note

Run wlmaker with the --log_level=DEBUG argument to get more verbose debug information.

  1. wlmaker fails with an ERROR log of Could not initialize renderer.

    This indicates that wlroots was unable to pick a suitable renderer. For triaging & debugging, try the following:

    1. Verify whether another wlroots-based compositor 1 starts up. If not, it's a wlroots issue, please follow up there.

    2. Try using a different renderer, eg. by setting WLR_RENDERER=pixman 2.

    If that does not help: Please file an issue, including a full paste of your the configuration & build log, and of the startup attempt.

Footnotes

  1. https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots/-/wikis/Projects-which-use-wlroots#compositors

  2. https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots/-/blob/master/docs/env_vars.md?ref_type=heads