FAQ - WayfireWM/wayfire GitHub Wiki

Here is a non-extensive list of some common issues which arise when using Wayfire.

Table of contents

1. Wayfire shows just a black screen with a cursor visible

Wayfire itself is just a "bare-bones" compositor, similar to Mutter. If you want a background and a panel, you should also install or update wf-shell. In case you install to non-standard prefix and you do not use wf-install, don't forget to set the appropriate environment variables(for example, LD_LIBRARY_PATH so that the panel/background can find wf-config, and PATH).

2. The mouse cursor is invisible

This is a known problem for ex. with the nouveau driver. As a workaround, set the WLR_NO_HARDWARE_CURSORS=1 environmental variable before starting Wayfire.

3. Compilation error X

Wayfire depends on wlroots, which sometimes has breaking changes. To find a compatible version of wlroots:

  1. Wayfire releases usually mention which wlroots release(!) they are compatible with.
  2. Wayfire master branch usually compiles with wlroots master branch.
  3. When in doubt, look at the subprojects/ folder. The wlroots submodule listed there always points towards a wlroots commit which is compatible with the checked out Wayfire version.

4. Monitor displays garbage/ is flickering/ is black

Try setting the evironment variable WLR_DRM_NO_MODIFIERS=1 before launching wayfire. See #1397.