OS: Manjaro XFCE latest.
Wanted to try cosmic file manager.
Installed cosmic files and request dependencies.
$ cosmic-files
\[x245@x245 \~\]$ \[2026-01-03T13:44:24Z ERROR cosmic_config::dbus\] Failed to create watcher for com.system76.CosmicTheme.Mode
\[2026-01-03T13:44:24Z ERROR cosmic_config::dbus\] Failed to create watcher for com.system76.CosmicTk
\[2026-01-03T13:44:24Z ERROR cosmic_config::dbus\] Failed to create watcher for com.system76.CosmicTheme.Dark
\[2026-01-03T13:44:24Z WARN wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance\] Unable to find extension: VK_KHR_surface
\[2026-01-03T13:44:24Z WARN wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance\] Unable to find extension: VK_KHR_xlib_surface
\[2026-01-03T13:44:24Z WARN wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance\] Unable to find extension: VK_KHR_xcb_surface
\[2026-01-03T13:44:24Z WARN wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance\] Unable to find extension: VK_KHR_wayland_surface
\[2026-01-03T13:44:24Z WARN wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance\] Unable to find extension: VK_EXT_swapchain_colorspace
\[2026-01-03T13:44:24Z WARN wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance\] Unable to find extension: VK_KHR_get_physical_device_properties2
thread âmainâ (43216) panicked at /build/.cargo/git/checkouts/libcosmic-41009aea1d72760b/3b8ad45/iced/tiny_skia/src/window/compositor.rs:68:10:
Create softbuffer surface for window: PlatformError(Some(âVisual 0xaa does not use softbufferâs pixel format and is unsupportedâ), None)
note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace
$ cosmic-files âRUST_BACKTRACE=1â
\[2026-01-03T13:49:02Z WARN cosmic_files\] failed to canonicalize RUST_BACKTRACE=1: No such file or directory (os error 2)
\[x245@x245 \~\]$ \[2026-01-03T13:49:03Z WARN wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance\] Unable to find extension: VK_KHR_surface
\[2026-01-03T13:49:03Z WARN wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance\] Unable to find extension: VK_KHR_xlib_surface
\[2026-01-03T13:49:03Z WARN wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance\] Unable to find extension: VK_KHR_xcb_surface
\[2026-01-03T13:49:03Z WARN wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance\] Unable to find extension: VK_KHR_wayland_surface
\[2026-01-03T13:49:03Z WARN wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance\] Unable to find extension: VK_EXT_swapchain_colorspace
\[2026-01-03T13:49:03Z WARN wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance\] Unable to find extension: VK_KHR_get_physical_device_properties2
\[2026-01-03T13:49:03Z ERROR cosmic_config::dbus\] Failed to create watcher for com.system76.CosmicTheme.Mode
\[2026-01-03T13:49:03Z ERROR cosmic_config::dbus\] Failed to create watcher for com.system76.CosmicTk
\[2026-01-03T13:49:03Z ERROR cosmic_config::dbus\] Failed to create watcher for com.system76.CosmicTheme.Dark
thread âmainâ (43527) panicked at /build/.cargo/git/checkouts/libcosmic-41009aea1d72760b/3b8ad45/iced/tiny_skia/src/window/compositor.rs:68:10:
Create softbuffer surface for window: PlatformError(Some(âVisual 0xaa does not use softbufferâs pixel format and is unsupportedâ), None)
note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace
Cosmic is described as âWayland-native desktop environment built in Rustâ, so you canât run Cosmicâs file manager under XFCE which runs on the Xorg server. Also, since Wayland is merely a protocol and each compositor is an implementation thereof but implementations may still differ itâs unclear whether it would make sense to try to run Cosmicâs file manager under a different compositor, that is, a compositor different from Cosmicâs compositor cosmic-comp.
For the sake of experiment, i installed it. It opens, with the same theme d-bus errors, so it is something local.
Anyway, it looked very oversimplified (i guess that is the gnome-cosmic philosophy), and of course with its own theme. And it is pretty alpha. I guess crashes are to expect. Definitely not anything to use on xfce.
p.s. i installed the repo version, with the aur version your mileage will vary.
Important Notice: Please be aware that the Wayland support in Xfce 4.20 is experimental. It is recommended for advanced users only, as you may encounter bugs and experience incomplete functionality. Proceed with caution!
So far Xfce does not feature a compositor which supports Wayland. If you want to run Xfce in Wayland, Labwc and Wayfire will give you the best results. A detailed instruction on this can be found here. Please be aware that Wayland support is still experimental!
Plans are underway to add Wayland support to Xfwm4 while preserving its existing X11 functionality. However, such a restructurization will be a major effort and we cannot tell yet when/if it will be done, so please donât hold your breath waiting for it.
We are talking about one app here, and not the whole desktop. As said, it starts on X11. Have not clicked in it for more than 30 seconds, so i didnât wait long enough for the thing to crash.
As for xfce and wayland, i checked the roadmap, which is currently without fixed dates. But it is said to expect a beta quality result at 4.22. Which in theory will be at the end of 2026, but i would not hold my breath until at least mid-end 2027.
Written in Rust, OK itâs a pgm language.
Wayland native, OK, but I thought, that even on Gnome and KDE you may have X11 interface for some apps which do need X11.
Here we have XFCE in X11, with one app requiring Wayland, so I suppose in the middle there is bridge btw Wayland apps & X11 desktop.
That is beyond the scope of a package manager - at least of existing ones. pacman is fundamental to Arch and has been for ages
and it provides access to all the available software in the repositories and keeps track of what is installed and of inter-dependencies and conflicts.
It isnât aware of specific Desktop Environments.
(they can even all be installed, but only one is actually used - or none at all even)
The description of the software one wantâs to install should give enough clues (I think).
There are two problems with such an idea. First it canât really be determined whether an app is really Wayland only - if you have Qt apps then they can run as X apps or as Wayland apps without source code change merely controlled by a flag or environment variable. I donât know though which other toolkits (cosmic uses Iced) provide a similar functionality. Second even X apps need a running X server to be displayed on - and you know a package manager wonât check if you have the right display server running or rather running a display server at all.
Moreover, regarding Wayland it looks like we will get a deeper or stricter separation / fragmentation. I mean for X there was a single Xorg server running regardless of your DE or window manager - LxQt doesnât even come with a WM of its own but defaults to openbox but you can choose whatever WM you like. For Wayland however each WM or rather compositor isnât merely your WM but also your display server. So while for instance the cosmic file manager will run on a different compositor i presume it was developed and tested only on cosmicâs compositor which is just another implementation of the Wayland protocol adding to the dozen or so already around. This means that unlike in the X era you wonât cherry-pick your file manager from the one DE to make use of it in a different DE with a different compositor so easily. This may result in a poor experience, things not working properly because a different compositor may have different features that the application needs, and so on.
For the last time. What is said is generally true - there is software for wayland that will not work on x11 and vise versa. The case with that particular app is different. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here it is. X11 session, wayland gears do not run, but cosmic-files does:
Not sure if you need everything, but wayland and labwc seems to be the minimum. Otherwise it does exactly this - jumps back to login. Enjoy. It worksâŚinteresting (you cannot change the keyboard layout without additional config, for example, the theming i will not even mention). Well, it is very alpha, i think it will be another year or two for xfce to adopt wayland.
Then donât run out of band apps. Cosmic files was written for Cosmic, not XFCE.Or install Cosmic, then use Cosmic Files. The experience will be better.
So I installed labwc, it asked for dependicies bemenu and I choose bemenu-wayland
Rebooted
Wayland logged worked, but:
keyloard layout was lost
mouse was sluggish so I tried to change and parameter it never opened.
desktop menu disappeared.
My windows style is like Mac close, minimize to the top left corner, I noticed Terminal window was not applying, but Thunar well. Tried Cosmic-files it did opened.
I loggout, and tried once more to see if I could change the mouse speed, to no available.
So back to standard xfce.
Xfce Wayland experimental indeed, at least on my hardware.
Thanks for help anyway.
If you can only use X11 - I donât know - I really donât - if you have the xfce wayland login option but it doesnât work then I have no clue - I am blank.
I did the test on an instance of xfce stable branch in a virtual machine. I use it to verify issue with Xfce.
This document is intended for Xfce developers to keep track of Wayland development. This is a work in progress and does not imply any future implementation commitments.
Overall Plans
For Xfce 4.20, the plan was to add preliminary support to Wayland to core components without losing X11 support. This doesnât mean that by the next major release an Xfce session on Wayland will offer all existing features, but we hope it will be minimally usable
For Xfce 4.22, the stabilization work continues. Reaching X11 feature parity is not yet our target.
Long Term Goals
It is not clear yet which Xfce release will target a complete Xfce Wayland transition (or if such a transition will happen at all)
Testing
Regarding the version to test: master, or latest dev release would be best. If you donât test master, best add info on which version you tested.
If you run a NVidia GPU, you will need to use the âNouveauâ driver for testing, Since the proprietary NVidia driver does not provide Wayland support. (Though some things might work in some cases)
A wlroots compositor is almost a prerequisite for most core components (as well as panel plugins and some apps), at least to ensure that all features ported to Wayland are available. The default compositor is labwc, but wayfire is another wlroots compositor on which tests have generally been carried out.
To start an Xfce session on Wayland, you can run startxfce4 --wayland from a tty, which will launch xfce4-session from labwc.
If you want to use wayfire instead, youâll need to run startxfce4 --wayland wayfire and add this configuration first, as wayfire doesnât have a --startup option like labwc
(see startxfce4 --help for details):
, this doesnât mean you get the experience youâd like to get, see
This document is intended for Xfce developers to keep track of Wayland development. This is a work in progress and does not imply any future implementation commitments.