With the change in Ubuntu 25.10 to only use Wayland, will Ubuntu still be able to provide what is needed so that OSes derived from Ubuntu can continue to use X11? I know that the interface that Ubuntu uses is Gnome based and that will not support X11 at all but other derived OSes have many other interfaces that do support X11. What I am unsure about is if there is anything changing on the backend that would prevent the use of an X11 based interfaces.
No such plans have been announced.
Ubuntu will officially continue to support X11 through Xwayland.
Xorg may not be included in the base install anymore, but is still available in the repos.
This question has been asked before and answered before.
As you know, Gnome is removing all X11 code from its Gnome desktop environment code base. So, Ubuntu has to take what Gnome.org offers. But the X11 code will remain in the Ubuntu repositories. This means that the developers of the flavours will still be able to have X11 in their flavours if that is what they want. Nothing changes in that regard.
In some cases the developers of the flavours have no choice. They depend on the upstream work of the developers of the desktop environments that they are using. If those developers are not able to provide a Wayland compliant compositor then the developers of that flavour have no choice but to still offer a desktop running the X11 server.
What particular desktop environment are you concerned about? Go to the web site of that desktop environment (not the flavour) and see what progress they are recording in developing a Wayland compositor.
That is what I would have to do if I tried to answer a question about a particular flavour switching over to a Wayland compositor. It is exactly what I have done in the past.
Regards
1 Like
guiverc@d7050-next:/de2900/lubuntu_64$ fastfetch
....
.',:clooo: .:looooo:. guiverc@d7050-next
.;looooooooc .oooooooooo' ------------------
.;looooool:,''. :ooooooooooc OS: Ubuntu Resolute Raccoon (development branch) x86_64
;looool;. 'oooooooooo, Host: OptiPlex 7050
;clool' .cooooooc. ,, Kernel: Linux 6.19.0-6-generic
... ...... .:oo, Uptime: 11 days, 20 hours, 1 min
.;clol:,. .loooo' Packages: 2909 (dpkg), 36 (snap)
:ooooooooo, 'ooool Shell: bash 5.3.3
'ooooooooooo. loooo. Display (24E1N2100D): 1920x1080 in 24", 60 Hz [External] *
'ooooooooool coooo. Display (KA222Q B): 1920x1080 in 21", 60 Hz [External]
,loooooooc. .loooo. Display (KALED24MONCA): 1920x1080 in 24", 60 Hz [External]
.,;;;'. ;ooooc Display (DEL4047): 1280x1024 in 19", 60 Hz [External]
... ,ooool. DE: LXQt
.cooooc. ..',,'. .cooo. WM: Xfwm4 (X11)
;ooooo:. ;oooooooc. :l. WM Theme: Pills
.coooooc,.. coooooooooo. Theme: Fusion [Qt], Greybird [GTK2/3]
.:ooooooolc:. .ooooooooooo' Icons: oxygen [Qt], oxygen [GTK2/3]
.':loooooo; ,oooooooooc Font: Ubuntu (11pt) [Qt], Ubuntu (11pt) [GTK2/3]
..';::c' .;loooo:' Cursor: Yaru (45px)
Terminal: qterminal 2.2.1
Terminal Font: IBM Plex Mono Text (14pt)
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6500 (4) @ 3.60 GHz
GPU 1: AMD Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series
GPU 2: Intel HD Graphics 530 @ 1.05 GHz [Integrated]
Memory: 11.87 GiB / 14.97 GiB (79%)
Swap: 3.96 GiB / 12.00 GiB (33%)
Disk (/): 86.25 GiB / 95.30 GiB (91%) - ext4
Disk (/lts): 75.58 GiB / 93.66 GiB (81%) - ext4
Local IP (enp0s31f6): 192.168.15.169/16
Locale: en_AU.UTF-8
( Key in that being âWM: Xfwm4 (X11)â
The X11/Xorg moved from main to universe, ie. is community supported, and NOT included on a default Ubuntu install.
None of us have crystal balls, or easy access to blue police boxes (that travel in time) so canât predict well in the future; but weâre still using Xorg/X11 on our machines today, and at least for resolute or 26.04 if we want.
I have GNOME or Ubuntu Desktop installed on this box; as well as Xfce from the Xubuntu team, and LXQt from the Lubuntu team (what Iâm using now) & more. As gdm3 (default for Ubuntu Desktop) doesnât allow login to X11/Xorg sessions - Iâm using sddm which does (as my DM). Iâve not removed gdm3 from this install, itâs just not currently selected to be used (so I can login with my Xorg/X11 sessions).
Our systems are built from âbuilding blocksâ called packages, the flavors just replace packages with others to achieve what they want; the non-flavor but Ubuntu based systems in effect do the same too. Thus far nothing has removed our capacity to run Xorg/X11 sessions.
I think the demise of xorg is inevitable. The devs will have their way with Wayland, no matter the opposition to it. The drive for âsecurityâ overrides every other consideration, Wayland, snaps all are about security, and the weird thing is that Linux is inherently far more secure than any other O/S.
If it was about usability and compatibility then fine, but it is not, there are so many issues and bugs both with snaps and Wayland that many still just cannot use them. Mythtv for instance doesnât play well with Wayland, Nvidia graphics cards have all sorts of issues, but the devs and the open source âindustryâ keeps plowing ahead full steam regardless. If the rollout was not so premature then things would not be so bad, but they carry on regardless.
Having said that, they give their time and expertise free for all of us and I for one should not be such an ungrateful cur.
Nvidia graphics cards have all sorts of issues, but the devs and the open source âindustryâ keeps plowing ahead full steam regardless.
What are these issues, to be exact?
I have used my current computer with Nvidia card on multiple distros, and I have never had any issues considering Nvidia and Wayland. On the other hand X11 has caused me more than enough grey hair.
Only issues with graphics that I have encountered on my setup stem from inregrated AMD. Everytime I do clean install, I have to apply boot/kernel parameters to get my system run without major graphical glitches.
I would not call Wayland âprematureâ; if it would be that, there would be no DEâs switching to it. I understand that X11 is kind of an institution on Linux world, but I think we all have to agree that itâs not necessarily best option for modern hardware.
I would like to like Xlibre, but what annoys me is the fact that it partly stems from the âWayland sucksâ -mentality. However, Linux is about freedom of choice and it means one can build distro into oneâs liking. If it means favoring X11 or Xlibre over Wayland, so be it. But that doesnât mean that Wayland sucks and it should be avoided.
We are living a time of change on Linux world and itâs more than natural it raises strong feelings.
If you do a Google search you will see many issues with Nvidia and Wayland try this: nvidia cards and Wayland problems in a search.
You may not call Wayland premature but I think these results speak for themselves.
I am not saying that Wayland should not be implemented, but that the exclusive use of it is premature, all new distro releases should have the option to use either.
Well, if I write X11 Nvidia problems I have also results that report issues on that side as well
I donât think itâs fair discussion that when you are asked about issues, you tell me to use Google. If you make claim, you should back it up a little bit for example telling about your own issues
Are you aware that many of these have been fixed (actually many of them by work of Canonicals desktop team with Nvidia devs)
You really should check the dates when doing such a search, I bet many of these complaints are obsolete
4 Likes
@dinomonster Of course there are many problems with X11, thatâs the whole rationale behind the switch and Wayland is the way of the foreseeable future, the exclusivity of the rollout is the real issue here. Do you have trouble doing a search? I have said Mythtv is my main gripe, it is laggy and the screen does not paint correctly, double images for instance.
Hi @ogra Yes some have been addressed, but there are still many unresolved. The devs have been working hard to iron out the bugs, all credit to them.
Nobody has addressed the main gripe, why make Wayland exclusive during this early stage? Linux is all about choice, if people are having bugs and difficulties with Wayland why is it so hard to offer a choice of either at install time? What is the all-fired rush? Nobody has given any satisfactory explanation for suddenly sticking X11 into the multiverse repository instead of continuing to offer it as a regular alternative.
Wayland is over a decade old, not sure you can call that an âearly stageââŠ
Multiverse is for proprietary software, luckily Xorg only goes to universe 
The problem is that Xorg doesnât really have any active maintainers anymore, it is pretty much bit-rotting nowadays, which makes it a security nightmare and nobody wants to invest into it anymore because it is known to go away eventually.
Also note that the decision to drop it was not made by Canonical or the Ubuntu developers, it was upstream (GNOME as well as KDE) who decided to drop it, weâre just following suit here because the desktop we ship simply doesnât support it anymore⊠for other desktops in flavors it is still available (and these build from universe anyway so nothing is lost)
4 Likes
@ogra OK so X11 is not well maintained. So what? You nor anyone else has given a solid reason not to include it in distributions.
If it is a problem security - wise so what? I really donât buy into this ubuntu obsession with security. Linux is inherently more secure than other osâs, and if users want to install X11 they should be able to do so, the risks have been shouted from the rooftops for a very long time as you point out.
Yes, universe not multiverse.
Early stage? Yes early stage because there are still major issues that have not been properly addressed. I donât understand why it has taken 10 years and these issues are still present.
So you think the desktop we ship removing all code that could even remotely make use of Xorg isnât enough reason? You simply will not be able to run GNOME on Xorg anymore, why would we ship something you can not useâŠ
It will not go away from the archive and be available in universe for anyone to use and that wonât change as long as it is available in Debian
2 Likes
And that in itself is a statement and not really a positive one in regards to how far (or not so far) Wayland has come after a 10 years.
You could say that but what about XLibre? Someone out there is putting in the work itâs just that itâs become a âhot topicâ because of peopleâs personal and dare I say it political beliefs. It has the ability to be a viable option and fairly soon as the foundation for it was poured so long ago.All you have to do is look here:
See my answer in the other threadâŠ
2 Likes
But this doesnât necessarily preclude Debian from adopting Xlibre,what if they do?And as far as folks from Ubuntu not wanting to maintain it if it doesnât come from Debian youâre more than likely right.But nothing is guaranteed in life and this is definitely one of those situations.
I personally have never used Gnome, I use KDE, Gnome is not the be all and end all, there are many other DEâs out there.