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orschiro
Asked: 2017-10-03 02:25:08 +0800 CST

How do you switch from Wayland back to Xorg in Ubuntu 17.10?

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Some of my applications don't work on Ubuntu 17.10 Wayland. How can I switch back to Xorg?

xorg

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    When you boot your system and get to the GDM login screen you should find a cogwheel (⚙️) next to the sign in button. If you click on the cogwheel you should find an Ubuntu on Xorg option which will start an Xorg session instead of a Wayland session.

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  2. If you wish to do it permanently, edit /etc/gdm3/custom.conf and uncomment the line:

    #WaylandEnable=false

    by removing the # in front of it.

    Save the file and then on reboot you will never see the cog asking for which session to use.

    EDIT: Apparently @doug beat me to this answer. I didn't see it earlier - It was in a comment that was hidden initially.

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  3. You may want to remove wayland session to prevent accidental logins.

    <

    Your package maintainers will be proud of you if you do it as follows:

    sudo mkdir /usr/share/wayland-sessions/hidden
sudo dpkg-divert --rename \
      --divert /usr/share/wayland-sessions/hidden/ubuntu.desktop \
      --add /usr/share/wayland-sessions/ubuntu.desktop

    What this does is to instruct the package manager to remember a new location for the file. This has several advantages over the other answers:

    • It guarantees a future package install/upgrade won't revert your change
    • It works with other display managers (lxdm for example lists .backup entries)

    • You can revert it easily if you change your mind with:

      sudo dpkg-divert --rename --remove /usr/share/wayland-sessions/ubuntu.desktop

    >

    Source: https://askubuntu.com/a/500813/602695

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  4. May be running app like this can help? Can someone try it? Because I don't know whether that will be helpful to others.

    For example you need to run app called Putty from Wayland but it doesn't work because of font called "server:fixed" doesn't exist in Wayland, or may be it doesn't available for some reason. So you can change shortcut or run it from shell this way:

    env GDK_BACKEND=x11 putty

    Replace putty with something that you need. You need to set varibale exactly with env env GDK_BACKEND=x11, without env it will not work (for Putty at leased)

    Found here:

    Original: https://askubuntu.com/a/1402103/1586450

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