Explore the upcoming Xfce 4.20 release as it hints at an experimental Wayland session.
Since the release of Xfce 4.18, the Xfce development team has been diligently steering the desktop environment into the era of Wayland, the successor to the ageing X11 display server protocol.
On September 2023, I reported about a few updates about the Wayland work in Xfce. This week, the team has given us a few updates, which I will quickly touch upon here.
One of the pivotal decisions in the Xfce Wayland roadmap is the gradual departure from relying on XWayland for compatibility. Instead, the team has chosen to adopt wlroots over libmutter. This shift is aimed at enhancing the integration of Wayland within the Xfce desktop environment, promising a more native and seamless experience.
Recognizing the importance of ensuring the functionality of existing X11 applications and workflows, the Xfce team is engaged in critical discussions on how to achieve seamless backward compatibility during the transition. The goal is to strike a balance that allows users to enjoy the benefits of Wayland while still supporting legacy applications.
This delicate balancing act is crucial to preserving the user experience that Xfce users appreciate, ensuring a smooth and gradual shift towards Wayland without sacrificing functionality.
Xfce 4.20: A Glimpse into the Future with an Experimental Wayland Session
Excitingly, the Xfce team has expressed optimism about featuring an experimental Wayland session in the upcoming Xfce 4.20 release. While there is no concrete timeline for when Xfce with Wayland will reach stable status, the continual progress is promising. While the Wayland porting is in progress, the X11 will not be dropped anytime soon.
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).
Xfce team
The Xfce desktop is built using small pieces of components such as window managers, panels, apps, plugins etc. As of the development update, most of the components have been ported to Wayland.
Here’s a list from the official roadmap:
Xfce core components
| Component | Wayland Support |
|---|---|
| exo | yes |
| libxfce4ui | yes |
| libxfce4util | yes |
| thunar | yes |
| xfce4-appfinder | yes |
| xfce4-panel | yes |
| xfce4-session | no |
| xfce4-settings | yes |
| xfconf | yes |
| xfdesktop | yes |
| xfwm4 | no |
| xfce4-power-manager | yes |
| tumbler | yes |
| garcon | yes |
| thunar-volman | yes |
| xfce4-dev-tools | yes |
Applications
| Component | Wayland Support |
|---|---|
| xfce4-terminal | yes |
| mousepad | yes |
| xfce4-notifyd | yes |
| xfdashboard | no |
| xfce4-taskmanager | yes |
| xfce4-mixer | yes |
| ristretto | yes |
| catfish | yes |
| xfburn | yes |
| parole | yes |
| xfce4-screenshooter | no |
| xfce4-screensaver | no |
| xfmpc | yes |
| xfce4-volumed-pulse | no |
| xfce4-dict | yes |
| gigolo | yes |
| xfce4-panel-profiles | yes |
Thunar plugin
| Component | Wayland Support |
|---|---|
| thunar-archive-plugin | yes |
| thunar-media-tags-plugin | yes |
| thunar-shares-plugin | yes |
| thunar-vcs-plugin | yes |
Panel plugins
| Component | Wayland Support |
|---|---|
| xfce4-battery-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-calculator-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-clipman-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-cpufreq-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-cpugraph-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-datetime-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-diskperf-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-docklike-plugin | no |
| xfce4-embed-plugin | no |
| xfce4-eyes-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-fsguard-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-generic-slider | yes |
| xfce4-genmon-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-indicator-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-mailwatch-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-mount-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-mpc-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-netload-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-notes-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-places-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-sample-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-sensors-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-smartbookmark-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-statusnotifier-plugin | no |
| xfce4-stopwatch-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-systemload-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-time-out-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-timer-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-verve-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-wavelan-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-weather-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin | yes |
| xfce4-windowck-plugin | no |
| xfce4-xkb-plugin | no |
As you can see, the majority of the components are ported already.
But, the important one, i.e. Xfce window manager (xfwm4) is still being worked on. Without xfwm4, the desktop overall won’t work.
Undoubtedly, a considerable amount of work lies ahead for the Xfce team to fully implement Wayland support. The challenges extend beyond the desktop environment itself, as Wayland’s broader adoption requires collaboration with hardware manufacturers and driver developers. However, the Xfce team remains committed to navigating these challenges and delivering a Wayland experience that meets the high standards set by the Xfce legacy.
If you want to give it a try and test, you need to manually install Weston and compile components separately. Then launch them in Wayland session.
A detailed testing guide is available on this page.
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