Ubuntu first switched to using Wayland as its default display server in 2017 before reverting the following year. It tried again in 2021 and has stuck with it since.
But while Wayland is what most of is now login to after installing Ubuntu, anyone doing so on a PC or laptop with an NVIDIA graphics card present instead log in to an Xorg/X11 session.
This is because NVIDIA’s proprietary graphics drivers (which many, especially gamers, opt for to get the best performance, access to full hardware capabilities, etc) have not supported Wayland as well as as they could’ve.
Past tense as, thankfully, things have changed in the past few years. NVIDIA’s warmed up to Wayland (partly as it has no choice given that Wayland is now standard and a ‘maybe one day’ solution, and partly because it wants to: opportunities/benefits/security).
With the NVIDIA + Wayland sitch’ now in a better state than before —but not perfect— Canonical’s engineers say they feel confident enough in the experience to make the Ubuntu Wayland session default for NVIDIA graphics card users in Ubuntu 24.10.
“There are still a few known issues with this combination and due to the heavy use of Ubuntu Desktop in AI/ML, VFX and other industries we concluded that it was too early to make that switch in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS,” says the interim Engineering Director for Ubuntu Desktop.
As interim (aka short-term releases) are designed to function as a ‘test bed’ for substantive changes planned for future long-term support (LTS) releases, the soon that switch happens, the more real-world testing, fixing, and all the rest that can happen.
Not that anyone need wait for the Ubuntu 24.10 release to check in on the state of things. It’s possible to use Ubuntu Wayland on NVIDIA already, though depending on which release and NVIDIA driver version, some expectation and/or config adjustment may be wise.
I don’t have an NVIDIA graphics hardware myself so I’m keep to hear from those of you who do: is this something you’re excited for? Or have you tried Wayland recently and found support is still lacking? Let. me know in the comments.