Linux

Making Weston a Usable Wayland Desktop

Weston is the reference compositor for Wayland, the replacement to X11 desktop. In default layout Weston is not a user friendly desktop for those used to a traditional PC desktop. Follow the steps below to make it feel more familiar:

apt install weston
apt install xwayland
apt install wlogout

~/.config/weston.ini:

[core]
xwayland=true

[shell]
background-image=/home/user/Pictures/Wallpapers/Wallpaper.jpg
background-color=0xff002244
background-type=scale-crop
panel-position=bottom
panel-color=0xcc111111
clock-format=minutes
locking=true
lockscreen-icon=/usr/share/icons/gnome/256x256/actions/lock.png
#lockscreen=/usr/share/backgrounds/gnome/Garden.jpg
#animation=zoom
#startup-animation=fade

[launcher]
path=/usr/bin/wlogout
#path=/usr/bin/killall weston
icon=/usr/share/icons/gnome-colors-common/24x24/actions/system-log-out.png

[launcher]
path=/usr/bin/pcmanfm menu://applications
icon=/usr/share/icons/gnome-colors-common/24x24/places/gnome-colors.png

[launcher]
path=/usr/bin/mousepad ~/.config/weston.ini
icon=
/usr/share/icons/gnome-colors-common/24x24/places/desktop-settings.png

[launcher]
path=/usr/local/bin/sudow /usr/bin/synaptic
icon=/usr/share/icons/gnome-colors-common/24x24/apps/synaptic.png

[launcher]
path=/usr/bin/pcmanfm
icon=/usr/share/icons/gnome-human/24x24/apps/file-manager.png

[launcher]
path=/usr/bin/lxterminal
icon=/usr/share/icons/gnome/24x24/apps/utilities-terminal.png

[launcher]
path=/usr/bin/weston-terminal
icon=/usr/share/icons/gnome/24x24/apps/utilities-terminal.png

[launcher]
path=/usr/bin/firefox-esr
icon=/usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/firefox-esr.png

[touchpad]
#constant_accel_factor = 50
#min_accel_factor = 0.16
max_accel_factor = 1.0

Create a script to run programs as root:
(*Note: don’t do this on a shared server!)

/usr/local/bin/sudow:

#!/bin/bash
xhost si:localuser:root
xterm -T "Enter password" -geometry 60x4 -e sudo -H $1 $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7 $8 $9
xhost -si:localuser:root

e.g. sudow /usr/bin/synaptic

Note there are still a number of difficulties that may limit Weston’s use as a daily driver:

  • No taskbar to click between running applications
  • Nvidia GPU’s are still difficult to get working
  • Multimonitor support is essentially not available with Nvidia cards (fbdev module limitation)
  • Remote desktop is essentially not available
    • waypipe configuration is undocumented
    • RDP not supported by MS Remote Desktop client
    • X11 ssh forwarding is not a thing unless X11 is also enabled)