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Wayland and AV

Operational guide for Wayland desktop behavior, browser/editor rendering, and screen capture.

Session model

  • GDM greeter: X11
  • User desktop session: GNOME Wayland

Confirm session type after login: - echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

VS Code setup

Use native Wayland flags in ~/.config/code-flags.conf: - --enable-features=UseOzonePlatform,WaylandWindowDecorations - --ozone-platform=wayland

Fallback if VS Code fails to launch: - Remove ~/.config/code-flags.conf

OBS screen capture

  • Use Screen Capture (PipeWire) sources.
  • Remove legacy Screen Capture (XSHM) sources.

Verify audio/video portal stack: - systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-pulse

Chrome setup on NVIDIA

Use ~/.config/chrome-flags.conf: - --enable-features=UseOzonePlatform,WaylandWindowDecorations - --ozone-platform=wayland

Do not enable VaapiVideoDecodeLinuxGL on this host profile. Do not enable Vulkan-related flags with Wayland on NVIDIA.

Zoom notes

Known behavior: - Zoom may black-screen on second screen share attempt in Wayland portal flow.

Practical workaround: - Launch Zoom via XWayland: - env QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb /usr/bin/zoom %U

Desktop integration fix: - Use a valid full desktop entry in ~/.local/share/applications/Zoom.desktop. - Never create a one-line or empty override file.

App validation checklist

  • Firefox:
  • sign in and validate sync restore.
  • Thunderbird:
  • complete account setup and send/receive check.
  • Steam:
  • first launch and game render test.
  • Zoom:
  • repeat stop/start screen share test.