Wayland Compatibility Issues

Wayland Overview

Ubuntu 26.04 uses the Wayland display protocol by default. Wayland is more secure and efficient than X11, but some older applications may have compatibility issues.

# Confirm the current session type
echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
# wayland or x11

Common Compatibility Issues

Application windows are blurry or scaling is abnormal

Some X11 applications may appear blurry under XWayland (especially on high DPI screens).

# Force an application to use native Wayland (if supported)
GDK_BACKEND=wayland APP_NAME
 
# Force X11 (through XWayland)
GDK_BACKEND=x11 APP_NAME
 
# Qt applications
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland APP_NAME
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb APP_NAME  # Force X11

Screen sharing/recording not available

Wayland restricts applications from directly accessing screen content. Screen sharing needs to go through xdg-desktop-portal.

# Confirm the portal service is running
systemctl --user status xdg-desktop-portal
systemctl --user status xdg-desktop-portal-gnome
 
# Restart the portal service
systemctl --user restart xdg-desktop-portal

When screen sharing in a browser, make sure to use a browser that supports PipeWire (both Firefox and Chrome support it).

Remote desktop tools not working

Some remote desktop tools (such as TeamViewer, AnyDesk) may have issues under Wayland:

# Use GNOME built-in remote desktop
# Settings > System > Remote Desktop
 
# Or install Wayland-compatible VNC
sudo apt install gnome-remote-desktop

Global hotkeys not working

Wayland does not allow applications to listen to global keyboard events (security restriction).

Solutions:

• Use the keyboard shortcuts configuration in GNOME Settings
• Some applications (such as Flameshot) need to register hotkeys through D-Bus/portal interfaces

Clipboard issues

Clipboard may not work across different applications under Wayland:

# Install wl-clipboard tools
sudo apt install wl-clipboard
 
# Copy
echo "content" | wl-copy
 
# Paste
wl-paste

Input method issues

# Confirm the input method framework
# Fcitx5 (recommended)
sudo apt install fcitx5 fcitx5-chinese-addons
 
# Set environment variables
# Add to /etc/environment:
GTK_IM_MODULE=fcitx
QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx
XMODIFIERS=@im=fcitx

Electron Applications

Many Electron applications (VS Code, Slack, etc.) need to enable Wayland support:

# Add launch parameters
code --enable-features=UseOzonePlatform --ozone-platform=wayland
 
# Or modify the Exec line in the .desktop file
# Add --ozone-platform=wayland

When You Need an X.org Session

Starting with Ubuntu 26.04, the default Ubuntu Desktop (GNOME) session is Wayland-only: the login screen no longer offers a “GNOME on Xorg” option, and WaylandEnable=false in /etc/gdm3/custom.conf no longer takes effect. If an application genuinely must run on a native X.org server, you have two options:

Option 1: Install another desktop that provides an X.org session

KDE Plasma, Xfce, MATE, i3, and similar desktops still provide X.org sessions. After installing one, pick its X.org session from the gear menu in the bottom-right corner of the login screen:

# Choose one
sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop   # KDE Plasma (includes Plasma on X11)
sudo apt install xubuntu-desktop   # Xfce (X.org session)
sudo apt install ubuntu-mate-desktop

Option 2: Use X11 within that desktop session

Once logged into one of the X.org sessions above, X11 tools such as xrandr, xdotool, and xclip work normally. Under the GNOME session you should instead use native Wayland tools (wl-clipboard, ydotool, GNOME Settings, etc.).

XWayland

XWayland is the X11 compatibility layer under Wayland. Most X11 applications will automatically run through XWayland.

# Check if a window is running through XWayland
# Install xprop
sudo apt install x11-utils
xprop | grep -i xwayland
# If you can select the window, it is running on XWayland

In GNOME, press Alt+F2 and type lg (Looking Glass). Under the Windows tab, you can see whether each window is using XWayland.

NVIDIA and Wayland

NVIDIA GPU users need to ensure:

# Driver version 535 or higher
nvidia-smi | grep "Driver Version"
 
# Confirm GBM backend is enabled
ls /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnvidia-egl-gbm.so*
 
# Add to /etc/environment (if needed)
# GBM_BACKEND=nvidia-drm
# __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia

Application Compatibility Quick Reference