I’m a seasoned Linux user, but mostly for servers and services, not really for desktop use.

I’ve dabbled in some desktop distros on my personal rig a few times in the past, but ultimately due to specific games, I’ve gone back to Windows.

I recently installed Arch and KDE. Upon initial boot I noticed it was defaulted to Wayland. Every time I would try to log in it would just go to a black screen then cycle back to the login screen. Picking X11 would bring me to the desktop.

Basic Specs:

  • AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3D
  • nVidia RTX 4090

I have been doing some reading into this and it looks like the issue is due to the proprietary nVidia drivers, but there are solutions to work around this.

I know nothing of Wayland other than its supposed to be more secure. My question is, is it worth the time/effort to get Wayland working? I primarily use my system for gaming. X11 seems to be working just fine for me right now.

Forgive me if I’m using some of the terminology wrong, still learning.

EDIT - Selling my gpu is not an option. I knew ahead of time that AMD has superior Linux support, but the 4090’s performance can’t be matched by anything AMD has. Maybe next upgrade I’ll go back to AMD if they have the top performer.

  • ForynGilnith@lemmy.world
    3·
    1 year ago

    I had many issues running Arch+Wayland+nvidia because, as a long-time i3 user, I figured that migrating to Sway would be the best choice based on so many people in the community talking about it. I tried moving over several times, every few months to see if the experience had improved but each time I got frustrated with how terrible and buggy the environment was.

    Trying out Hyprland was a complete game-changer. I’ve been running it full-time for about 2 months and it’s completely stable, supports everything I need to run, and is more efficient: the battery on my laptop lasts about 30% longer compared to my i3/picom/X11 setup.

    So yeah, I highly recommend Hyprland if you’ve tried sway in the past and didn’t get anywhere with it.

  • A Cat@sh.itjust.works
    3·
    1 year ago

    Has this place officially become a true Linux community? Did we just have the first X vs Wayland thread?!

    That said, I use Wayland on all my machines, but I don’t have Nvidia hardware. I suggest just using X11 until Nvidia manages to do the needful. Personally I enjoy using wayland, things run so smoothly, I have zero issues with games and the only application I used that broke was Barrier, but I just used it for my Steam Deck and that problem is solved with SSH.

    • electroskunk@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 year ago

      Has this place officially become a true Linux community? Did we just have the first X vs Wayland thread?!

      Not until I see the GNU/Linux “interject” copypasta and someone calling MS “Micro$haft”.

  • heartlessevil@lemmy.one
    3·
    1 year ago

    X11 is deprecated, it’s been removed from RHEL, and hasn’t had dedicated maintainers for years. You might as well switch to Wayland (and xwayland if needed) now, it’s not really the case that you have an option.

        • sin_free_for_00_days@lemmy.one
          1·
          1 year ago

          Oh, I’ve followed this stuff for years and years. I’ve been using Linux pretty much exclusively for a quarter of a century. People love to harp on the security issues, but from what I’ve seen that’s pretty much theoretical. The only real compelling argument is that developers are leaning toward Wayland, so that’s the way it will go. I’m sure some day I’ll go to update and it’ll be time to make that change.

          I’m not a developer. I wasn’t super happy with the change to systemd, but it’s not like I was the one that had to deal with the init v issues, so when it changed, I went along. I’m sure the same will happen with Wayland. The last time I tried it, a lot of my decades of cruft didn’t work, shortcuts and workflow issues. Sure, I should probably clean up all that crap anyway, but like I said, it’ll happen when it happens. Until then, I’m completely happy with X11.

  • nobloat@vlemmy.net
    2·
    1 year ago

    I love Wayland but I’m not using Nvidia. I really hope th3y figure that Nvdia stuff out soon because it’s such a roadblock to many people when it comes to Wayland

    • Sentau@lemmy.one
      1·
      1 year ago

      Nvidia is the one who had things to figure out. Their poor support for GBM and closed drivers are the reason the Wayland developers have not been able to improve the experience on NVIDIA

  • atomkarinca
    2·
    1 year ago

    Void Linux user here. nVidia’s Wayland support was shit a couple of months ago but it has been pretty good for a few months now. And they’re really focusing on Wayland with each update. Sway is weird with nVidia, which they state openly. I have RTX 3060Ti and I’m using Wayfire. Steam is working pretty smoothly and I haven’t had any problems gaming, so far (no AAA games, mind you, just CSGO, Hollow Knight, Subnautica etc.).

  • sin_free_for_00_days@lemmy.one
    1·
    1 year ago

    I tried Wayland a few times and kept running into issues. I just figure at this point I’ll stick with X11 until it fades away and I don’t have a choice. I’m not a gamer though, so I can’t say much about that.

  • Communist@beehaw.org
    1·
    1 year ago

    I would just wait if you’re on a nvidia card, all of the problems with nvidia on wayland are nvidias fault, and they’re supposedly releasing patches to fix this, but it’s taking forever and nvidia sucks.

    If possible, sell it and get an amdgpu

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkfFvEeVC4w

    It’s honestly a good idea to just sell.

    Wayland is fundamentally better designed from the ground up, but isn’t extremely mature. Waiting is perfectly fine if you’re comfy on x11, but once wayland is the default everywhere, the linux desktop will be a significantly better experience in more ways than just security.

  • Zymars@lemmy.ml
    1·
    1 year ago

    I use a X11 due to my gpu a 1660 ti and my drivers which I need for gaming. Wayland only worked for me when I did not have nvidia drivers installed, so I had to move back to X11 after I installed my drivers, but for the short time I used wayland it was sufficient enough for my daily tasks when I was not gaming. I will be sticking with X11 until Wayland is stable enough for my nvidia gpu or when I buy a new pc and get a amd gpu.

  • ipkpjersi@lemmy.one
    1·
    1 year ago

    For me, I use Xfce so the decision is already made for me, Xfce does not support Wayland yet. I figure by the time Xfce does support Wayland it’ll probably be ready enough for me to use in general.

  • the_codifier@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’ve found compatibility lacks on programs like AnyDesk (does not support Wayland for remote connections). IMO, if you don’t really need Wayland, stand with X11

  • Mathieu@beehaw.org
    1·
    1 year ago

    I run Wayland on my laptop (a Framework) and it works beautifully. But I still use X11 on my desktop where I’m a heavy Zoom user. The lack of a proper support for screensharing in Zoom is the primary blocker for me.

    Wayland is great other than compatibility issues like that.

  • Ministar@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    I am on Fedora KDE and run Wayland with Nvidia without any major problems daily. But if you have problems, i would rather just wait, especially if X11 is working for you. Nvidia should start fixing the wayland issues soon.

    • phil_m@lemmy.ml
      1·
      1 year ago

      I really hope they’ll fix it soon, I want to use wayland for years already, but there are still a lot of small issues, so that I have always gone back to X11 (like weird glitches, or no support for gammastep etc.)

  • Scraft161@iusearchlinux.fyi
    1·
    1 year ago

    NVIDIA has been shit on wayland for a while now, wayland is coming along nicely though and there’s already quite a bit happening in terms of expensions; but unless you need wayland for something there’s no real need for it (and you can get wayland apps working on X11 just fine). The big thing right now is that we’re in a transition period where we need to go from one ecosystem with tons of well used extensions (like xinput) to one where these extensions are still being developed.

    What I’d say is that if you just stick to Gnome or KDE you won’t have to worry about which one you’re using yet, and if you have problems with wayland just stick to X11 until those get resolved. I’m in a similar ballpark where I’m still on X as I am waiting for several parts of the wayland ecosystem to mature (mainly nvidia support specifically for certain laptop configurations and tiling WMs (yes there’s options, but I have multiple problems with most of them))

  • RandomDude@lemmy.ml
    1·
    1 year ago

    Little late to the party, but I’ll chime in. I have a 3080, and for the most part, Wayland works, but there are a few problems that keep me from using it as a daily driver. G-Sync doesn’t work at all, and when I put my PC to sleep, upon wake I end up needing to do a full reboot because of severe graphical issues. When it is running though, it’s pretty smooth, with only a few graphical issues here and there. I still daily drive X11 though until the major bugs are fixed.