Linux - Windowing System

Windowing system

A note about X11 and Wayland

A windowing system is a software suite that manages different parts of display screens separately. In Linux or Unix-like system, the most common windowing system is X11, which is a client-server system. The X server manages the display, while the X client displays windows and handles user input. The X.Org project provides an open source implementation of the X Window System. However, other windowing systems are also available for Linux, such as Wayland and Mir. Wayland is a newer windowing system designed to be more efficient and secure than X11. On the other hand, Mir is a windowing system developed by Canonical specifically for use with the Ubuntu operating system.

How to know whether Wayland or X11 is being used?

$ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

For X11 systems, this will display: x11 For wayland systems, this will display: wayland

How to switch from wayland to x11 ?

1. First, make sure that xorg is intalled. sudo pacman -S xorg. Select all for available packages.
2. In your login screen, at the bottom left, there is a menu where you could choose between Wayland and X11. If you have autologin enabled and you are not seeing the login screen, edit the following file:
   1. /etc/sddm.conf
   2. /etc/sddm.conf.d/kde_settings.conf
3. Change plasma to plasmax11 for the Session under [Autologin].

   [Autologin]
   Relogin=false
   Session=plasmax11
   User=explorer436
   
   [General]
   DisplayServer=x11
   HaltCommand=/usr/bin/systemctl poweroff
   RebootCommand=/usr/bin/systemctl reboot
   
   [Theme]
   Current=breeze
   
   [Users]
   MaximumUid=60513
   MinimumUid=1000
   

4. Reboot.