Tilix: Wayland and Quake Issues Merged Bugs

[gnunn1]

There are a number of bugs reported with regards to Wayland and Quake. As noted previously, Quake mode in Wayland is very problematic because applications have limited access to understanding screen geometry and no access to setting position. Bugs that have been reported against this functionalionality include:

1312

1290

1285

I've had a look at resolving these issues and frankly I just don't think it's possible to have a perfect experience under Wayland without getting into writing Wayland extensions or something else equally exotic (for an app developer that is).

This situation cannot continue as I do not have the desire to keep closing these bugs, here are the possible solutions I am considering:

1. Completely disable quake mode in Wayland. Easiest to do but least desirable

2. Force the x11 back-end when running tilix under quake mode in wayland. Since tilix is single process this is only going to work if tilix is started in quake mode first. Also leads to other issues like mixed-monitor scaling not working which is a key benefit of Wayland for many users.

At this point I am planning on going with Option 1, I'm tired of dealing with Wayland issues for quake mode and I do not see a better resolution at this time.

Thus you can expect quake mode to be disabled in the next version of tilix. Those who want to use it can do so my manually forcing the X11 back-end via the GDK_BACKEND=x11 variable.

[gnunn1]

Quake mode is now disabled in Wayland.

[ggalmazor]

Hi @gnunn1! Your decision is totally understandable. I'm worried, though, as everything is pointing towards a massive Wayland adoption by almost every major distribution.

In my case, I use Tilix exclusively in quake mode. It seems that forcing the X11 back-end is the way to go for me. How does the GDK_BACKEND=x11 option work? Is that an env variable I need to set globally?

[gnunn1]

Hopefully you could just set it in the desktop file as part of the command, i.e.

GDK_BACKEND=x11 tilix --quake

[noirbizarre]

So bad, was working fine here with wayland/HiDPI/multiple screen.
I don't understand this decision, removing a so useful feature to everybody for a few edge cases bugs without any replacement. Better done than perfect, no ?
I've been using this feature extensively since its release and the wrong sizing was nothing compared to the lack of this feature.
Why not display a warning in the configuration panel, a message in the readme... anything else than hardcoding if isWayland then disable() ?
I saw some gnome-shell extension but none is working.

Isn't it possible to bypass that (ie. enable quake mode in wayland with the knowledge there can be some bugs) ?

[gnunn1]

@noirbizarre I can understand your point of view but at the end of the day I just do not have the bandwidth to deal with all of the bugs surrounding the feature. As mentioned previously, you can still use the feature in Wayland, just run tilix using the x11 backend.

[noirbizarre]

@gnunn1 I just found #1322 in which @repsac-by is providing an extension for gnome-shell (https://github.com/repsac-by/gnome-shell-extension-quake-mode)
This is not solution for any wayland session but it works well for me under gnome-shell and I though it was worth mentionning here in case anyone find this issue

[Jomik]

Would be nice to make this a setting that can be enabled, with a warning that it may not work properly. I never had any issues with Tilix under Wayland, getting this new update made me quite sad. The aforementioned extension sadly doesn't work as well, as it doesn't actually hide the application from your ALT+TAB, etc.

[arashm]

The feature was working perfectly fine for me. Although I have two monitors, since I was using quake mode in fullscreen, I never had any issue about where the window opens etc, and I think it was even smoother when using with wayland (in terms of animation). Too bad this decision is made. I wish this was an option for users and all other bugs would marked as "wontfix" or "upstream bug" maybe.

[zbraniecki]

Really sad about it. The feature was working perfectly fine for me as well. Now trying to use the gnome shell extension replacement but it keeps creating new windows and shows the quake window in panorama view :(

[avastmick]

All is not lost! As @gnunn1 states above, if you do want to use it in Wayland you can enable the keyboard shortcut using the following command:

env GDK_BACKEND=x11 tilix --quake

You put this as the keyboard mapping Command, in place of just tilix --quake.

I map that to F10, as per the instructions and it works fine, with no issues whatsoever, auto hides, shows on multiple monitors, etc. I have created a terminal profile for it to optimise, turning off the scroll bar and tuning size etc.

env GDK_BACKEND=x11 tilix --profile=quake --quake

[zbraniecki]

@avastmick I tried it on arch linux with no success. The tilix opens new regular window and displays the notification about not supporting Wayland.
I had to use the gnome extension which unfortunately don't work well (opens a new window every now and then and leaves the previous quake window floating :/)

[avastmick]

@zbraniecki that's strange. I too am on Arch with Gnome 3.28 and with the above command it works as expected on Wayland. It should work as the application is being opened in X11 via Xwayland, not native Wayland, so the message is not shown. Have a look at the Arch Linux Wiki on Wayland to troubleshoot.

[arashm]

I have Archlinux and it works fine for me too (except it sometimes opens in different monitor that I want to). I have set this shortcut in gnome settings:

env GDK_BACKEND=x11 tilix --quake --window-style=borderless --profile=Dropdown --full-screen

[Frederik-Baetens]

A lot of people (including me) were really satisfied with how it worked, please re-enable wayland quake mode, even if you won't put any further work into it. As said previously, make it an option which says that it's not officially supported.

I understand that it wasn't a perfect solution, however, removing quake mode seems to have caused a lot more upset than leaving it in.

[Venemo]

Actually, I switched to tilix from guake precisely because it had quake mode in Wayland... :(

[Queuecumber]

Just for information's sake, is the plan to never support this under wayland or is the plan to have this issue as a catch-all until wayland matures and implements the features necessary to make this work?

[gnunn1]

Wayland will never implement window positioning which is what is needed. It's possible gnome and gtk could implement something, if they do I'm happy to revisit it but not holding my breath.

[Venemo]

@gnunn1 I'd be interested to help out, if possible. Can you give me a list of what features are needed on Wayland and why? How did you do it, before removing the support completely? Even if window positioning is not supported, I still see some possible compromises there. For instance, Wayland could still be supported in maximized or fullscreen mode, which don't need positioning.

If other stuff is also needed or buggy, let's start a conversation with the Wayland devs to see what their opinion is on how it should be done.

[gnunn1]

Window positioning is the important one, it let's you control which monitor the window appears, sizing of the windows, etc. Previously it used a hack where if the window was 100% wide the window manager would position it on top.

As to supporting a full screen only mode I have no interest in supporting the feature if it's too compromised.

[berkiyo]

Thanks to arashm, it seems adding this in GNOME Settings works:

env GDK_BACKEND=x11 tilix --quake --window-style=borderless --profile=Dropdown

Looks like the last two flags do the trick!

[Crandel]

I don't want to install Xwayland for tilix, please return quake option back, you can hide it deeply in configs, but this is the most important feature for me to use tilix at all. using x11 under wayland - dirty hack and not acceptable for me