My current laptop is a Dell XPS 15 with a 3200x1800 screen.
While I’m at work I use two external 1920x1800 screens.
I’ve tried many Linux distributions, but none of them has a good support for multiple displays with different pixel densities.
So I have no choice Windows here I come.
After the news “Wayland Confirmed as Default for Ubuntu 17.10“ I was excited: one of the features of Gnome3 over Wayland is the support for my “not usual” configuration
I’ve downloaded the latest ISO and created a Live USB and… Reboot
Strangely there was no scaling at all, the density of the main screen was copied to all the others.
Even worst I was not able to configure correctly my external monitors (on the left and one in portrait mode).
I fast search and with the command:
1 | echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE |
I’ve found out I was still using X11.
In my opinion not the best choice to force me to install the full operating system to test one feature; especially now I can’t afford to format and reconfigure the entire machine.
So…
Here is how I’ve tried Wayland on Ubuntu 17.10 Live USB without the need of installing.
Warning: I can’t assure this will actually work on your machine.
Step 1: Exit from the X11 Environment
You need to log out from the current session and go back to the login screen.
Once here press CTRL + ALT + F6 to open a terminal that is not emulated in the windows manager.
Here log in with the user ubuntu, which is a default user with administrator privileges.
Step 2: Stop GDM3
GDM3 is the GNOME Display Manager and is the responsible to orchestrate the display server and the desktop environment.
To stop it run:
1 | sudo /etc/init.d/gdm3 stop |
Step 3: Change GDM3 configurations
Configure GDM3 to use Wayland by editing the configuration file /etc/gdm3/custom.conf
Change the line
1 | # Uncoment the line below to force the login screen to use Xorg |
as follow
1 | # Uncoment the line below to force the login screen to use Xorg |
Also disable the automatic login feature.
Changing the line
1 | AutomaticLoginEnable=true |
as follow
1 | AutomaticLoginEnable=false |
Step 4: Restart GDM3
To start GDM3 again it run
1 | sudo /etc/init.d/gdm3 start |
Step 5: Go Back to the Graphical Environment
To go back to the graphical environment and try Wayland press CTRL + ALT + F1
At this point simply log in and have fun.
Carlo Bernashina
2017-12-20