[HN Gopher] Wayland Nvidia
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       Wayland Nvidia
        
       Author : breve
       Score  : 51 points
       Date   : 2025-12-04 10:00 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (kextcache.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (kextcache.com)
        
       | superkuh wrote:
       | To be clearer, as each wayland desktop pretty much creates their
       | own incompatible wayland compositor (because wayland protocol is
       | minimal and not feature complete) this is just a guide to fixing
       | the hyperland broken wayland desktop. Not all waylands' broken
       | desktops.
        
         | ChocolateGod wrote:
         | What protocol is missing from Wayland?
         | 
         | Yes Wayland doesn't have a printer protocol like Xorg, I know.
        
           | singron wrote:
           | https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland-
           | protocols/-/t...
           | 
           | This is an incomplete list of protocols that aren't part of
           | core Wayland. Compositors implement additional protocols that
           | aren't even part of this process (e.g. wlr-screencopy-
           | unstable). See the wlroota protocols here: https://gitlab.fre
           | edesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots/-/tree/master...
        
             | ChocolateGod wrote:
             | Right but there's the xdg-portal for screen capture which
             | runs through Pipewire and supports sand-boxing (because its
             | negotiated over dbus), which all the main compositors
             | support.
             | 
             | Just because a protocol isn't part of Wayland, doesn't mean
             | a standard protocol does not exists.
        
       | tietjens wrote:
       | When can I reliably run ~95% of Steam titles on Linux with a
       | Nvidia card? That's what I'm waiting for, then it's bye-bye
       | Windows.
        
         | brettermeier wrote:
         | ~30+ years
        
         | marginalia_nu wrote:
         | I don't even know when I ran into a game that didn't run off
         | Steam on Linux. There's some fiddling gamescope on Wayland to
         | get them to perform well, but most just run out of the box with
         | great performance.
         | 
         | The stuff that doesn't work typically don't work because kernel
         | level anticheats, so a few competitive titles but even in that
         | space many titles still run.
        
         | everdrive wrote:
         | Wait no longer! Per capita I doubt 5% of games use kernel-level
         | anticheat. Almost anything else runs pretty painlessly.
        
         | embedding-shape wrote:
         | https://www.protondb.com/dashboard
         | 
         | > Top 10 - 20% Platinum - 30% Gold - 10% Silver - 30% Bronze -
         | 10% Borked
         | 
         | I'd probably say at least Gold is "reliably click and play
         | without fiddling", so probably we're around 20-50% there right
         | now, if we consider the top 10 games on Steam. Once you start
         | considering top 100 or top 1000, it starts to look a lot
         | better. But still, mainstream games are lagging seemingly.
        
         | windsurfer wrote:
         | It has been my experience that this is currently the case. I
         | haven't had to even open protondb or search for a workaround in
         | over a year. The only titles I know that don't work are a
         | handful of multiplayer games that have intentionally disabled
         | linux support.
        
         | fadeddata wrote:
         | I use Debian 13 with an Nvidia 50 series card and I'm able to
         | play games fine. Currently playing ARC Raiders and it works
         | great.
         | 
         | I think there are still some common anti cheats that don't
         | work. But single player has been flawless for me.
        
         | lawn wrote:
         | I'd wager that 95% of Steam titles does run on Linux.
         | Admittedly some big and popular games use invasive anti-cheat
         | that's not supported, but they're less than 5%.
        
         | tapoxi wrote:
         | I'd just go AMD. The drivers there are much more mature due to
         | Google and Valve contributions, and the performance of an 9070
         | XT is great while being cheaper than the equivalent 5070 Ti.
         | FSR4 is a solid competitor to DLSS and works in any game that
         | supports FSR 3.1.
         | 
         | Anti-cheats won't work, I keep a Windows drive just for
         | Battlefield 6.
        
           | alias_neo wrote:
           | I got fed up about a week ago and ditched my Nvidia GPU for a
           | 9070XT.
           | 
           | I run CachyOS and have been having a nightmare of a time on
           | Wayland with my 3D Printer slicer and other tools I use my
           | computer for being unusable.
           | 
           | The only thing that has ever kept me on Nvidia all these
           | years is that they have been killing AMD performance wise for
           | gaming.
           | 
           | The 9070XT is easily performant enough for the gaming I'm
           | doing at the moment, and I can finally ditch the last major
           | headache I've had in two and a half decades of being a Linux
           | user - NVIDIA drivers - good riddance.
           | 
           | I don't play online games other than Helldivers 2 (so anti-
           | cheat is a non-issue) which is working just fine at 70-80FPS
           | max settings in 4K. Also getting good performance with RT off
           | playing Ghostwire in 4K with settings as high as I can get
           | them while staying above 60 FPS with Freesync.
           | 
           | EDIT: 9070XT seems to have a bit of headroom too I got the
           | Asus PRIME OC version; Using LACT I upped the power limit
           | from the stock 317W to 340W and undervolted by -100mv (YMMV
           | on this value) and can get a decent chunk of extra
           | performance out of it.
        
         | jwcooper wrote:
         | You can do that now, and for at least the last year.
         | 
         | Very few games don't work anymore, and most that don't are
         | using kernel level anti-cheat or are generally hostile to users
         | anyways (Fortnite and Destiny 2 could work, but they actively
         | block Linux).
         | 
         | I main Fedora with an Nvidia 3080 and haven't had issues for
         | quite some time now.
        
         | Scramblejams wrote:
         | Many of the replies completely missed the part about Nvidia,
         | _sigh_.
         | 
         | I unfortunately still see a lot of Proton bug reports that
         | don't repro on AMD cards. Hoping that improves soon, I'm sure
         | Valve would love to tell hardware makers that Nvidia GPUs are
         | supported.
        
           | windsurfer wrote:
           | I have been using Nvidia on Linux for years and am able to
           | run 95%+ of my library on Steam.
        
             | Scramblejams wrote:
             | That's awesome! But not everyone's library is the same, so
             | YMMV. I regularly see problems with flight sims that are
             | Nvidia-specific, for example.
        
           | marginalia_nu wrote:
           | Not seeing any issues with my NVidia card.
        
           | kachapopopow wrote:
           | I have an nvidia card on catchyos with catchyos proton and I
           | have not ran into a single game that does not run, well ok
           | some only walk, but that's also a problem on AMD.
           | 
           | I am excluding games that rely on a kernelmode anticheat.
        
           | nickv wrote:
           | Games I've played on my Arch Linux desktop with a 4090 in the
           | past few months: Clair Obscur, Disco Elysium, Outer Worlds,
           | Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk, Dispatch, Silent Hill f,
           | FFVII Rebirth. I haven't had a single issue with any of these
           | games. What games do you think will struggle? I can give them
           | a shot if I own then and let you know how they do.
        
         | antonyh wrote:
         | I can run 99% on Linux + AMD + X11, on Ubuntu 24. The only
         | problematic one is Witcher 3 which insists on Wayland which
         | breaks everything else. Even the UT5 titles work well enough,
         | but then again our gaming is not your gaming and you might be
         | more demanding that we are.
         | 
         | I'm trying to recall how NVidia behaved for games, but my daily
         | driver is an old 1050 Ti that's been rock solid for years now,
         | also X11.
         | 
         | Maybe the problem is Wayland not NVidia?
        
         | lacoolj wrote:
         | I play everything in Ubuntu on my 4080
         | 
         | From CS2 (native) to the Final Fantasy XV demo (not native) and
         | everywhere in between
        
       | pshirshov wrote:
       | But still no console, right?
        
       | bogdan wrote:
       | Is this stable on a multi-monitor mixed resolutions & refresh-
       | rates setups?
        
         | Havoc wrote:
         | Yeah haven't had issues with mine (3090)
         | 
         | 3840x2160@59.99700
         | 
         | 3840x1080@143.99899
         | 
         | ...there is a nvidia bug on some cards where they idle high
         | with multi monitors ~50W. Pretty sure that's OS independent
         | though
        
       | cedws wrote:
       | Meanwhile Grandma says: "what's a wayland?"
       | 
       | How can anybody seriously argue Linux is an OS ready for ordinary
       | users when you have to do crap like this? Complete delusion.
        
         | lawn wrote:
         | Linux isn't a single OS. It's hundreds of different and weird
         | combinations.
         | 
         | There are Linux distributions that are better than Windows or
         | iOS for grandma to use as well as distributions where you need
         | to be an expert to do anything.
        
           | cedws wrote:
           | It doesn't matter, your options are either X11 or a Wayland-
           | based compositor, both of them come with their respective
           | headaches that a regular user has NO IDEA how to fix.
        
             | jamesnorden wrote:
             | >both of them come with their respective headaches that a
             | regular user has NO IDEA how to fix.
             | 
             | Unlike Windows, right? Right? Guys?
        
             | lawn wrote:
             | You're making this issue much bigger than it is in reality.
             | 
             | Dare I say that you frankly have NO IDEA what the
             | experience on modern Linux is today.
        
             | ninth_ant wrote:
             | This is only accurate for people who choose enthusiast-
             | centric DIY distributions such as Arch.
             | 
             | "Regular" users have plenty of distribution choices where
             | there are zero of these types of headaches.
        
         | jwcooper wrote:
         | Your grandma doesn't need to know what wayland is to use linux.
         | This is an enthusiast forum for people interested in this exact
         | topic.
        
           | cedws wrote:
           | This post shows that she does, if she is unfortunate enough
           | to own a device with NVIDIA graphics, because without this
           | fix Wayland will be broken.
           | 
           | Of course, this is only one example of probably hundreds
           | where an average user would have no clue how to fix their
           | broken computer.
        
             | kalaksi wrote:
             | It doesn't. And you shouldn't install Arch on your
             | grandma's computer.
        
         | bryanlarsen wrote:
         | ChromeOS is a far better "Grandma" distribution than Windows or
         | MacOS. Linux is simultaneously both the most Grandma friendly
         | and least Grandma friendly, including every point in between.
         | 
         | You need to compare apples to apples, aka pre-installed vendor
         | supported operating systems. If you're comparing installing an
         | unsupported OS on unsupported hardware, Linux is far superior.
         | Try installing MacOS on a Windows computer or Windows on a Mac
         | if you're truly masochistic.
        
         | prmoustache wrote:
         | Are you saying windows and macos do not have any bugs? I have
         | news for you.
         | 
         | Also wevare talking here about archlinux + hyperland
         | compositor, not the typical Fedora, Mint or Ubunti/Zorin
         | distro. Tinkerer's gonna tinker while the other users just use
         | their computer regardless of the OS.
        
         | tapoxi wrote:
         | This isn't Linux, it's Arch running Hyprland. If Grandma wants
         | that combination she knows what Wayland is.
         | 
         | If you want Linux that works, get a Chromebook. If you want to
         | play games, use Bazzite.
        
       | jwcooper wrote:
       | Most of this article seems unnecessary in 2025 and is very
       | specific to Arch.
       | 
       | For most distributions you can simply install the (proprietary)
       | nvidia drivers and you're good to go.
       | 
       | There is generally no tweaking or command line changes necessary
       | for Nvidia to work on Wayland, including multi-monitors with
       | different resolutions and refresh rates.
        
         | PoisedProto wrote:
         | My "gaming" laptop is completely effed on most distributions,
         | and forces me to use Linux Mint to select an older driver
         | (which also causes problems.)
        
           | kachapopopow wrote:
           | that sounds like a firmware issue rather than a driver one,
           | laptops are known to have horrible apic including on windows
           | (ex: asus laptops). https://github.com/Zephkek/Asus-ROG-Aml-
           | Deep-Dive
        
           | everdrive wrote:
           | I assume you have 2 GPUs and one is integrated?
        
         | samlinnfer wrote:
         | In Arch, the current NVIDIA driver automatically sets KMS and
         | the kernel command line and hyperland changes are no longer
         | needed. Basically it just works now.
        
       | juliangmp wrote:
       | Careful there, I was almost able to see some parts of the article
       | through the ads
        
         | jjuel wrote:
         | Came to say something about the ads too. Ended up not even
         | reading the article it was so bad.
        
           | kachapopopow wrote:
           | It feels surprising that there's people on hackernews without
           | adblock considering that adblock is not just for blocking
           | ads, but also malware, illegal tracking and blocking annoying
           | and useless banners.
        
             | mnmalst wrote:
             | Totally agree. Every time I see someone complaining about
             | ads, I think "What ads?"
        
               | a012 wrote:
               | Their adblock shamming overlay is also blocking part of
               | the screen (on mobile) by the way
        
               | kachapopopow wrote:
               | brave seems to have some special sauce since it appears
               | to be able to hide the fact that ads were removed. I am
               | guessing they are doing so without triggering dom events.
        
               | prmoustache wrote:
               | Don't see that overlay on fennec + adblock, what are you
               | using?
        
             | nottorp wrote:
             | Well I run an ad blocker too, but maybe we should try
             | browsing submitted URLs without blocking ads and only
             | upvote them IF we can still read them like that.
        
               | everdrive wrote:
               | I take a similar approach, but with noscript. If you
               | cannot read it without enabling js, then I won't read the
               | article.
        
             | iAMkenough wrote:
             | My browser automatically blocked something that's
             | triggering an overlay to "Disable any DNS / Extension Based
             | AdBlocker to Continue" with no option to dismiss.
             | 
             | So the people on Hackernews with adblock aren't reading
             | this.
        
               | kachapopopow wrote:
               | interesting, on brave such popup never came up.
        
               | lawn wrote:
               | I did not get this on Firefox mobile using uBlock and
               | JavaScript disabled.
        
               | PoisedProto wrote:
               | I was able to read it perfectly while using uBlock.
        
               | prmoustache wrote:
               | no overlay here on fennec + ublock.
               | 
               | Reader mode also available but not even needed.
        
             | temp0826 wrote:
             | HN has many ad-apologists. It's more ironic than surprising
             | that there's complaints.
        
         | BearOso wrote:
         | The terminal screenshots are terrible, too. They're using a
         | non-monospace font and the kerning is messed up, making
         | everything double-wide.
        
       | kachapopopow wrote:
       | Interesting coincidence, yesterday I was using a similar article
       | to hopefully fix kwin starting to slow down after 10+ days of
       | uptime.
        
         | 64718283661 wrote:
         | I noticed this myself, both gnome and kde. It turned out to be
         | that leaving Firefox open for long periods of time caused this.
        
           | kachapopopow wrote:
           | I think for me jetbrains applications cause a memory leak in
           | KWin which actually is becoming less of a problem now that I
           | am switching to neovim slowly but surely.
        
       | rmrfchik wrote:
       | nvidia on linux [for desktop] is utterly broken. I ran nvidia
       | cards for almost 15 years (shame on me): laggy X11 compositing,
       | fragile and broken wayland. Broken suspend/resume. Too many
       | moving parts (selected drivers, modprobe quirks, suspend/resume
       | scripts). Moved to amd: slick x11, reliable wayland, NO MORE
       | DRIVERS AT ALL, works like charm. And yes, I do playing in Linux.
        
       | thenthenthen wrote:
       | Wow the ads are killing this page
        
       | antonyh wrote:
       | Having failed to get Wayland working on Debian Trixie with a 1050
       | Ti as an upgrade from X11, I've given up for now and will try
       | again when I switch to AMD. This is a workstation not used for
       | games so it'd be good to have Wayland working right but I'm not
       | wasting time fighting it, and it'll get the GPU from the gaming
       | rig when it becomes due nullifying the problem.
       | 
       | What I don't get is if these are proscribed steps (and they do
       | read as such) why are they not automated with the module install?
       | Why are we still fighting these issues if the 'workaround' is
       | linear and well described? Is it as flimsy a reason as "write-an-
       | article, collect-advertising-revenue" rather than contribute code
       | to the installer?
        
       | letwhile wrote:
       | The monthly wayland news, that we would be there already. Reminds
       | me of fusion energy.
        
       | lacoolj wrote:
       | Hey Gemini Take this article and submit PRs to all major distros
       | that applies all the fixes in each different situation. Thanks!
        
       | yokoprime wrote:
       | I have an intel/nvida 4080 pc and im running a regular Arch
       | install, rocking KDE on Wayland. It works flawlessly, just
       | installed the drivers and that was that. Stop inventing problems
       | that do not exist.
        
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       (page generated 2025-12-08 23:01 UTC)