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Since 17.10 I got familiar with Wayland and I really need the per-monitor-scaling!

How can I start a wayland session after dist-upgrade to Bionic? There is no option in GDM available out-of-the-box.

I do not see what is described as

The Wayland session will still be available, pre-installed

Bionic Beaver 18.04 LTS to use Xorg by default

Zanna
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user200016
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    Don't you see a cogwheel (⚙️) next to the sign in button in GDM login screen? – pomsky May 07 '18 at 07:32
  • yes, but there is no option for wayland available. – user200016 May 22 '18 at 18:31
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    The problem might be that you upgraded. In a fresh installation of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, there is 'action' behind the cog wheel. (I have a fresh installation, and I can switch between Xorg and Wayland; I am running Wayland most of the time). -- Unfortunately the upgrade scripts are not quite mature yet. We can expect things to work smoothly when the first point release, Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS, is uploaded, late July or early August. – sudodus Jun 05 '18 at 10:16
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    @sudodus I have a fresh install, no cog though. Maybe it's because it's a "minimal desktop" install – Szabolcs Sep 24 '18 at 11:49
  • @Szabolcs, what do you mean by minimal desktop install? Which version of Ubuntu? Which desktop environment? How did you create it? You can also describe your computer (brand name and model). I suggest that you create an own question, where you describe your case. You can link to it from a new comment here. – sudodus Sep 24 '18 at 11:57
  • @sudodus The question discusses 18.04, so the version is clear. You asserted in your comment that in a fresh installation, there is always a cog icon. This is not true. When you install, the installer asks if you want a minimal installation. – Szabolcs Sep 24 '18 at 12:00
  • I did not assert that there is always a cog icon. There should be a cog icon on the log in screen, but if you go directly to the desktop (without logging in), you will skip the log in screen and the cog icon. – sudodus Sep 24 '18 at 12:38
  • @Szabolcs, I made a test minimal installation from ubuntu-18.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso according to your description (in a Toshiba laptop). After clicking on the user ID (in my case 'tester'), I arrive at a 'second' log in screen with a box to enter the password and under that a cancel button, a cog wheel and a sign-in button. When I click on the cog wheel, I can select between 'Ubuntu' and 'Ubuntu on Wayland'. ('Ubuntu' means 'Ubuntu on Xorg'). – sudodus Sep 24 '18 at 12:44
  • @Szabolcs, Please let me know if you want me to upload (or link to) a screenshot to show what it looks like. – sudodus Sep 24 '18 at 12:48
  • @sudodus Thanks for trying it. Here's a new question. I tried to install additional packages to make the cog appear (I tried gnome-session-wayland, which was a long shot, and didn't make "Ubuntu on Wayland" show up, but it did make the cog appear) This is getting much too complicated, so I might just give up on it. Please don't spend more time on it. I was convinced that the problem was the "minimal installation", but apparently it isn't then. – Szabolcs Sep 24 '18 at 12:55
  • @sudodus I reinstalled the whole OS again (even though the first one was a fresh install) and now the cog it's there. I have no idea why ... – Szabolcs Sep 24 '18 at 13:05
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – sudodus Sep 24 '18 at 13:06

2 Answers2

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On the login screen, you should be able to select "Ubuntu on Wayland" by clicking on the settings icon, next to the login button.

If that option is not available under the cog icon on the password screen, make sure that WaylandEnable=false is commented out (or not present) in /etc/gdm3/custom.conf

Mine looks like this:

# GDM configuration storage
#
# See /usr/share/gdm/gdm.schemas for a list of available options.

[daemon]
# Uncoment the line below to force the login screen to use Xorg
#  WaylandEnable=false

# Enabling automatic login
#  AutomaticLoginEnable = true
#  AutomaticLogin = user1

# Enabling timed login
#  TimedLoginEnable = true
#  TimedLogin = user1
#  TimedLoginDelay = 10

[security]

[xdmcp]

[chooser]

[debug]
# Uncomment the line below to turn on debugging
# More verbose logs
# Additionally lets the X server dump core if it crashes
Enable=true

If you cannot log in to change this, start Ubuntu into recovery mode, go into root shell, and mount root partition as read/write: How do I boot into recovery mode?

From there edit the GDM config with nano /etc/gdm3/custom.conf and comment out the WaylandEnable line: #WaylandEnable=false

Pablo Bianchi
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dhuyvetter
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  • «not sure why» is a bit scary. anyway, a new installation is not an option for me. – user200016 May 29 '18 at 11:34
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    thank you for the addition. i am in the sudo group, so i am able to edit the file, but the named line looks good already. – user200016 Jun 06 '18 at 11:07
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    I'm not seeing that option, I just see "Ubuntu", and "Gnome Classic", neither of which use Wayland. WaylandEnable = false is commented out. – Hassan Aug 27 '18 at 05:33
  • it appears that is you have an nvidia card, due to what seems to be a fundamentalist dev war, the session option isn't shown. https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/8q1ko0/why_cant_existing_nvidia_drivers_be_used_with/

    however, if you comment out #WaylandEnable = false i believe it does use wayland (at least, playing a game in lutris was very smooth after that change. (not sure how to check if wayland is running)

     – Tom Carchrae Jul 03 '20 at 16:51
  • also, you can enable and simply restart gdm, so edit as above and then run sudo systemctl restart gdm3 there is no need to log out or restart. – Tom Carchrae Jul 03 '20 at 16:53
  • how to check if wayland is running: loginctl show-session $(awk '/tty/ {print $1}' <(loginctl)) -p Type | awk -F= '{print $2}'

    from https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/202891/how-to-know-whether-wayland-or-x11-is-being-used

     – Tom Carchrae Jul 03 '20 at 16:55
  • strike that - wayland doesn't become enabled for me - no idea why the game got smoother! damnit. i'm using proprietary nvidia drivers (needed to develop using cuda) which i suspect is the issue. oh well. – Tom Carchrae Jul 03 '20 at 17:05
  • I don't have a cog wheel in Ubuntu 20. – samuelnihoul Apr 29 '23 at 17:38
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I got this to work, but it was by specifically setting this option:

WaylandEnable=true

In any case, as mentioned elsewhere, this does not work on all applications.

Google Chrome continues to have monster fonts.

Zanna
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