Fedora 25 Does Not Run Wayland But Falls to X11 Instead
You may want to try the new Fedora version 25, which is the first Linux distro to run Wayland by default. But you may notice that it actually looks exactly the same as on X11. And if you use an dual GPU laptop, it really is. It runs on X11 even though you have selected the default Gnome option, not the Gnome on X11 one.
- Created
- December 22, 2016
Why This Happens
Many laptops use two GPUs and provide multiple video outputs.
The problem is that some outputs might be connected only to the primary GPU and others only to the secondary GPU. And because Wayland cannot currently output to two GPUs at once (like PRIME, for example), the best option for the developers was to fall back to X11 when multiple outputs on multiple GPUs are detected. See these two links: Gnome Mail and RedHat Bugzilla.
How To Solve It
Mutter, the Gnome's compositor, looks for a MUTTER_ALLOW_HYBRID_GPUS variable and then decides whether to run on Wayland or on X11. The simplest solution is setting the value of this variable to 1.
Note: Some of your video outputs may become unusable when forcing Wayland instead of X. You, for example, may not be able to see a login screen when the laptop is connected to an external monitor.
sudo sh -c 'echo MUTTER_ALLOW_HYBRID_GPUS=1 > /etc/environment'And after a reboot you should be able to login to a Wayland session of Gnome.