F36 Change: Wayland by Default for SDDM (Self-Contained Change proposal)
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/WaylandByDefaultForSDDM
= Wayland by Default for SDDM =
== Summary ==
Change the default display server mode for SDDM to use a Wayland-based
greeter rather than an X11-based one.
== Owner ==
* Name: [[User:Ngompa|Neal Gompa]], [[User:Rdieter|Rex Dieter]],
[[User:Jgrulich|Jan Grulich]]
* Email: ngompa13(a)gmail.com, rdieter(a)gmail.com, jgrulich(a)redhat.com
* Product: KDE Spin, Kinoite
* Responsible WG: KDE SIG
== Detailed Description ==
With [https://github.com/sddm/sddm/pull/1393 the work done upstream in
SDDM to support using a Wayland based greeter] and
[[Changes/ReplaceFbdevDrivers|the introduction of SimpleDRM to fix the
broken fallback when platform drivers are unavailable]], it is now
possible for the Fedora KDE variants (the regular spin and Kinoite) to
move to Wayland for the login manager, which effectively completes the
switch to Wayland for these variants.
== Benefit to Fedora ==
As originally detailed in [[Changes/WaylandByDefaultForPlasma|the
Change to switch Plasma to Wayland by default]], Fedora is a leader in
advancing the adoption of the Wayland protocol as part of the overall
strategy to improve the Linux graphical software stack. We have been
successful in helping drive Wayland forward in the Plasma Desktop, and
we intend to do the same for SDDM.
== Scope ==
* Proposal owners:
** Upgrade {{package|sddm}} to the latest snapshot and introduce
mutually exclusive <code>sddm-wayland-generic</code> and
<code>sddm-x11</code> greeter configuration packages.
** Modify {{package|plasma-workspace}} to switch SDDM to Wayland
*** Enable installation of the SDDM Wayland configuration snippet and
ship as <code>sddm-wayland-plasma</code> that is mutually exclusive
with the other sddm greeter configuration packages. This package will
supplement {{package|sddm}} and <code>plasma-workspace-wayland</code>
to be automatically installed together.
** Modify <code>@kde-desktop</code> comps group for Fedora Linux 36 to
include <code>sddm-wayland-plasma</code> for the media.
* Other developers: N/A (not needed for this Change)
* Release engineering: [https://pagure.io/releng/issue/10536 #10536]
* Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)
* Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
* Alignment with Objectives: N/A
== Upgrade/compatibility impact ==
On upgrade to Fedora Linux 36, SDDM will be transparently switched
from the X11 greeter to the Wayland one leveraging kwin. In order to
override this, the user can do one of the following:
* Drop in a configuration file in <code>/etc/sddm.conf.d</code> to set
the display server back to X11
* Swap back to X11 with the configuration package: <code>dnf swap
sddm-wayland-plasma sddm-x11</code>
== How To Test ==
Once the SDDM and Plasma Wayland changes are made, Rawhide users can
try this by using nightly KDE ISOs and using them normally to install
and run a Rawhide KDE Plasma environment.
== User Experience ==
Ideally, there should be no noticeable impact on the user experience,
though users may notice that things operate more smoothly and with
slightly lower resources.
== Dependencies ==
This change is dependent on [[Changes/ReplaceFbdevDrivers|the Change
to replace fbdev with SimpleDRM]]. Without that Change, we will need
to keep SDDM using X11 because otherwise the fallbacks are broken when
drivers do not work.
== Contingency Plan ==
* Contingency mechanism: Update comps and {{package|plasma-workspace}}
so that <code>sddm-x11</code> is shipped instead.
* Contingency deadline: beta freeze
* Blocks release? Yes
== Documentation ==
N/A (not a System Wide Change)
== Release Notes ==
SDDM, the login manager for the Fedora variants using the KDE Plasma
Desktop, now uses the Wayland display system.
--
Ben Cotton
He / Him / His
Fedora Program Manager
Red Hat
TZ=America/Indiana/Indianapolis