Score:1

Wayland on Nvidia as we near Q4 2021

ke flag

So theoretically Wayland is now supported on Nvidia with the 470 and above drivers.

If this is true how can I completely transform my ubuntu 21.04 from Xorg to wayland?

(yes I am willing to completely reinstall steam and all my games, as well as any number of other apps)

Score:2
it flag

-- MY EXPERIENCE USING WAYLAND --


~ CONTEXT ~

I am running sway on nvidia right now. Have been for months (20.04). Sway only runs on wayland. I don't notice a difference as far as resources are concerned. I am constantly switching between:

  • Sway on Wayland -- (Listed as Sway in the login screen menu option)

  • regular Ubuntu on Wayland -- (Ubuntu on Wayland in the menu)

  • regular Ubuntu on X11 -- (Just Ubuntu in the menu)

  • GNOME classic on X11 -- (GNOME Classic in the menu)

     NOTE: If it is unclear which options menu is being referenced,
                 I go into detail on the subject in the section 
                       entitled `MODESWITCHING...` below.
    

All of these options showed up on my login screen after I installed Sway via Apt.

~ CONCLUSION ~

Anyway, my point is that the only difference I notice (between the two gnome/ubuntu) is that the colors are slightly different. Not better or worse, just different. I can post screenshots if you want.

There are a few other side affects in 20.04, such as the keybindings disappearing and the audio couldn't (can't) be controlled without system level commands. However, I am almost positive that this can be put up to the fact that my system was set up for gmome and I sort of just yanked it out of the picture. For fresh 21.04 installs, this will obviously not be the case.


-- MY EXPERIENCE USING WAYLAND --


Following are a few suggestions for the general user having issues with the Wayland combo. First and foremost..

  • download the newest drivers possible. While I can confirm that you generally do not need the 470 (I didn't even know the 470 had been released until reading this), many / most of the changes between versions likely deal with adapting to a Wayland environment.

  • If you have issues, use the nouveau driver. That was the workaround that I found while researching. I downloaded and used it, just to be safe, at first.

Eventually I got tired of switching drivers all the time, so I stopped, and nothing happened. That has been months ago, and my laptop never gets shut off. It has worked great for me... (knocking on wood.)


-- RELATED INFORMATION --


CONTEXT

I know what you're talking about, though. I remember when I installed, my setup was detected, and I had to click something saying "I will not purchase Nvidia drivers anymore." It turned out to be a non-issue for me, but that doesn't guarantee the same for everyone.

CONLUSION

In case I failed to make this obvious above, you will need to have these environments installed manually first. It has been a long time since I found them, and I've forgotten the "how." I just remember unclear documentation and a lot of trial and error.

If you have reservations, try out Wayland on your current version. That way, if it doesn't work there is no risk involved. You can just switch it back out.

MODESWITCHING BETWEEN DESKTOP ENVIRONMENTS

To switch between Wayland and X (and any other installed environments):

  • log out
  • from the login screen click on your acct.
  • as soon as you click, a gear will appear in the bottom right corner.
  • Click it. You'll be presented with the options "Ubuntu" and "Ubuntu on Wayland"
  • Once you select, everything else is as it normally would be.

-- EDIT --


According to your comment, this answer hasn't been helpful to you.

If the answer was off, it is because I still do not know what you are asking. Would you mind clarifying?

The only question I see is on the second line.

...how can I completely transform my ubuntu 21.04 from Xorg to wayland? 

I am having trouble making sense of this.

First off, according to the qoute, you have already "completely >!transformed" your Ubuntu. Ubuntu 21.04+ comes fully configured to >!support Wayland out of the box. Furthermore, when downloading Ubuntu >!21.04 (at least any supported version), GNOME desktop is not an >!option. In fact, according to the linked info, it isn't >!even available (this is a VERY dated statement, so take it with a >!grain of salt, so take it with a grain of salt.) Since your next statement contradicts the above assumption, I >!originally decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. This still leaves us with an extremely general question. Originally, >!I assumed as you know what you are doing, the generalization was due >!to the fact that you were looking for anything and everything useful >!on the subject.
As it seems I was wrong, I developed my answer into something that is >!(hopefully) usable by the community at large. If you can expand your >!answer, I will once again make changes in an attempt to match yours.

tatsu avatar
ke flag
yeah well that's not really what I'm looking for. I mentioned steam and my full games library. I take it you've never played a higher end (unreal, unity, cryengine) game on ubuntu? It doesn't run well or at all with nouveau (which, btw, you spelled wrong)
Nate T avatar
it flag
@tatsu be sure to check spoiler
tatsu avatar
ke flag
no. that is all wrong. You don't understand English actually. that's not at all what I said. word-for-word it and then you'll see. also the support for wayland is only partial if you have nvidia. Wayland only truly supports AMD. Nvidia has been a very very resistant hold out. And I already explained why nouveau is not what I'm insterested in.
tatsu avatar
ke flag
From what I understand the last time you had an Nvidia card was a long time ago and you are currently running AMD, or you did something and you do not remember what it is. But I went through the trouble of logging out on my ubuntu 21.04 and logging back in : https://imgur.com/4NSJfJF as you can see there is no wayland option by default. and precendently when I tried wayland sessions on ubuntu Xorg was still what was interpreting pretty much everything.
Nate T avatar
it flag
You have to install wayland first. My pc is a dell [g5 5590](https://www.cnet.com/reviews/dell-g5-15-5590-review/). It is a midgrade gaming laptop which comes stock with a nvidia geforce gtx... This is Linux. where we support ourselves and each other. AU is all the support I need Nvidia support doesn't want us and we don't need them. If I need a driver, I write it, or else find someone else on Github who has already done so. If you need me to dig up instructions for installing wayland on 20.04, I can. Let me know. Its been nearly a year since I installed, but I believe it is apt maintained.
Score:1
pl flag

I don't have 21.04, but from what I read (this, this), Wayland is the default in 21.04, and you could actually use the cog in the login screen to switch to Xorg.

Actual images of the login screen in 21.04 (#1, #2) show the options in the cog are

  • Ubuntu
  • Ubuntu on Xorg

as opposed what one had when enabling Wayland in 20.04, which is

  • Ubuntu
  • Ubuntu on Wayland

So I wonder how come you don't have the same options.

Please post the output of

$ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

Did you install 21.04 from scratch, or was it an upgrade?
If not, and you have enough disk space, you could set small partitions to try it out, installing then the nvidia 470 drivers. Everything looks to me like it should work, without you doing anything special.
Upgrading from 20.04 seems to have a few tricks, including: 1) modification of /etc/gdm3/custom.conf, 2) edition of udev rules (although for nvidia 470 this is perhaps not needed). But the alternative above seems a surer shot.

tatsu avatar
ke flag
it's not my case as I said previously : https://imgur.com/4NSJfJF and yeah it was an upgrade. so I guess that's the issue. I'll look a the tricks the `/etc/gdm3/custom.conf` file is not the trick because that line is already correctly commented, `cd /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/` is
tatsu avatar
ke flag
after editing it and rebooting I still have no new options in the cog and terminal returns `t@tsu:~$ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE x11 `
tatsu avatar
ke flag
Sucess ! `t@tsu:~$ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE wayland`. So what i did is I went here https://forum.manjaro.org/t/howto-use-wayland-with-propietary-nvidia-drivers/36130 and followed some of what they did namely commenting the last line as well : `#IMPORT{cmdline}="nomodeset", RUN+="/usr/lib/gdm-disable-wayland"` I also ran this : `gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features [\"kms-modifiers\"]` not sure if it contributed. and added : `nvidia-drm.modeset=1` to my default grub. after rebooting I had three options instead of the previous two: "gnome", "ubuntu" (this one) and "ubuntu on X-org"
Nate T avatar
it flag
If you decided to take the plunge, you should at least try sway. If youve ever used i3, Sway is basically i3 for Wayland. If you are into customizing configurations to automate workflows, it outshines all else in this area. It is also optimized in ways that make it ideal for gaming (i.e. memory mgmt, low latency, provides tweaks to get the most out of every machine, etc.) Two main reasons I prefer it over tradioional desktop envs:
Nate T avatar
it flag
1.) It more or less gives you multiple distros (environments) in one. Due to the login cog deal that @sancho.sReinstateMonicaCellio and I mentioned in our answers, you don't even need to reboot. Just log out and back into the other... and 2.) Whereas gnome provides you with four separate workspaces, Sway gives you 22!! (technically infinite, but 22 are premapped to keybindings.) Furthermore, they can each be setup to load your apps / comfigurations on login. For example, when I log, Tmux loads, maximizes, creates 5 windows (tabs) within, names each, sets/confs. panes, and loads nvim.
ru flag
How the new nvidia driver works? is it use KMS during booting? is the flicker free booting works?
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