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.

  • highduc@lemmy.ml
    5·
    1 year ago

    Wayland is the future. But I live in the present so I use X11 :)

    Just kidding I use Wayland on my work laptop (and maybe I should revert it to X11?! I have an issue with switching to an external monitor). I have both installed but overall I think I’ve had fewer issues with X11 than with Wayland.

    I’m hoping one day soon it’ll be amazing but until then I see everyone’s pushing for it and in my experience so far it’s not ready yet.

  • nobloat@vlemmy.net
    4·
    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

    • taj@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      This. I haven’t had Nvidia in years. On Amd and/or Intel, ime Wayland is perfect.

    • 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

  • TheTrueLinuxDev@beehaw.org
    4·
    1 year ago

    Just a head up to be careful with 7900 XTX if you do plan on getting an AMD GPU like other people on here are suggesting.

    When I purchased 7900 XTX, AMD doesn’t offer me any way to control the fan speed on 7900 XTX and it always get stuck on 5% speed. I literally tried everything from using hwmon mode setting to manual (it stuck on auto and refuse to switch to manual), literally modifying the AMD GPU driver in kernel to forcibly set the manual mode for fan speed, it doesn’t work and instead it locks up the Kernel, and tried literally every application that exists for setting fan speed on 7900 XTX.

    I tried to contact the manufacturer to refund me, they refused to pay me back in full and want me to reduce what I get back, I paid $1000 for it, they want me to pay $100 shipping and to only be qualified to receive $400 from them. I ended up keeping the 7900 XTX and basically went nuclear on fixing the GPU. This was literally within 1 week of receiving the GPU mind you. AMD is ranked far below Nvidia after my absurdly negative experience with them and I would rather go with Intel than AMD at this point and that is saying a lot, because it’s not only my GPU that is a problem, but it also with their software and driver like ROCm that NEVER worked, ever.

    I created a plastic strap via 3D printing on top of the GPU and create a negative pressure fan to cool it down, it can stay under 50 degree Fahrenheit at 100% utilization.

    • highduc@lemmy.ml
      2·
      1 year ago

      I have that an 7900xtx too and mine works alright. I have the Sapphire Nitro+. Fans are off in the desktop and only turn on when playing a game, and I’ve monitored the temperature with mangohud and it’s doing a good job.

      So I wonder why you’re having issues. Even if you have a different model, the driver should be the same?! Maybe your distro ships an older driver or kernel or something? You haven’t mentioned what you use.

      And btw you haven’t mentioned if you used Wayland or X11. Whichever you’re using, try the other maybe that helps? Though it might have nothing to do with it…

  • RandomDude@lemmy.ml
    3·
    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.

  • Communist@beehaw.org
    3·
    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.

  • iloverocks@feddit.de
    3·
    1 year ago

    If gaming is your focus I would suggestedtio stick to x11 for some time. If you want to try an arch based distro I would suggested to stick with archo orendeveross. Thy are for the normal userwazy easier then pure arch.I

  • 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
          3·
          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.

  • Ben@lemmy.ml
    2·
    1 year ago

    This is a sore point. I understand that Wayland is the future, just as people adopt laptops instead of desktop machines.

    Many years ago, I used Opera browser - I learned to close tabs using MOUSE gestures… so instead of clicking on a little 'x to close a tab, I could press the RMB and draw an L shape.

    With X11 (initially with the software Easy Gesture and later on with KDE’s own Custom Shortcuts) I was able to do the same thing - but for ALL desktop apps.

    So now, drawing an L does Ctrl+W - and I have dozens more gestures to do not only keyboard shortcuts, but also commands and scripts…

    So just putting it out there that X11 isn’t only for NVidia users or gamers…

  • INeedMana@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 year ago

    I’m using Arch, Wayland, AMD GPU, Discord, Steam (Proton, so xWayland) for playing. I don’t remember when I switched to Wayland, might be even more than a year.

    I remember that I liked something about configuration and internal logic but mostly, for me, it just works. I don’t see much difference from purely user perspective.

    • jarredpickles87@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 year ago

      Does Wayland allow desktop/app streaming via discord natively? I remember trying to screen share in discord last year on Ubuntu and it didn’t work because of Wayland. I read that there were workarounds, but I didn’t have the time to invest in that then.

  • priapus@lemmy.one
    2·
    1 year ago

    I recommend to just use wayland unless you have a specific reason not to. The main two reasons not to are requiring global shortcuts and having an nvidia GPU that won’t play nice.

    You might just need to enable DRM KMS to get it working, in which case it may be worth using.

  • atomkarinca@lemmygrad.ml
    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
    2·
    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.