Wayland support for the UI.

[l0ner]

On wayland compositors Vbox uses xwayland even thought the UI is written with QT, a toolkit that its apps work on wayland.

Is there any work being done so it can run natively on wayland?? Any ETA???

[socratis]

Are you talking about the Host or the Guest?

Is there any work being done so it can run natively on wayland?? Any ETA???

Not only are you asking for something to be added, you're asking for the ETA for that addition?

I don't think that Wayland is high on the priorities list, but I could be wrong. The evidence so far says no...

[l0ner]

I am asking for the UI. The window where you see logs,details of each machine and launch them.

The code is there. Vbox uses QT 5. Apps written in Qt5 work on wayland. So in theory Vbox -the UI- should work. Unless the UI uses X specific stuff on linux which will need to be replaced.

[socratis]

The code is there. Vbox uses QT 5. Apps written in Qt5 work on wayland

Not sure what version though. Qt is currently at 5.12, but VirtualBox can't use anything higher than 5.6.x.

And BTW, what is the exact problem, I didn't quite understand it. Is there a problem with "xwayland". Not too familiar with the concept, just a n00b asking for some clarification...

[mpack]

Is Wayland cross platform, like Qt5 is?

[socratis]

Cross-platform? Forget cross-platform, it's not even cross-distro!

[mpack]

So Wayland is the underlying framework that Qt would be built on? Like Qt in built on Win32/Win64 on Windows hosts? Meaning that it's Qt rather than VirtualBox that would have to support Wayland?

Excuse me, I'm just struggling to understand what action is being requested here.

[socratis]

mpack, let me summarize the situation, I can be wrong on this in the specifics, but I don't think I'm far from the truth, the general idea:

• VirtualBox uses the Qt toolkit.
• For Linux guests the Qt toolkit is using/built-on the X server, pretty much the de facto standard for Linux hosts.
• There is also Wayland, a newer replacement for X server.
  
  My *personal* estimation is that it's already DOA. The distros that used it are not too crazy about it after all. PLEASE, I don't want a discussion/war over this.
• In order to make the transition easier for older programs, enter XWayland, a bridge between X and Wayland.
• It seems that Qt can either use XWayland unknowingly, for easier portability, or (it also seems) that there might be a QT version ported to Wayland, bypassing XWayland altogether.
  
  Please also note what I said earlier that VirtualBox cannot go above Qt 5.6.x for the moment, so that might be an additional problem, or even a show-stopper.
• The OP wants VirtualBox to use the Qt Wayland-native version in order to avoid XWayland.

Why would you want to get into that adventure? No clue... My estimate? Tough sell, I don't see a business opportunity for VirtualBox in there.

[l0ner]

@socratis

You don't seem to understand the whole Qt thing. Qt on linux isn't build for x or wayland. It can render on both for quite a while now. On most Qt apps i use i can just use an env var and make it render to whatever i want. Vbox isn't one of those apps and this is what i ask for. What is going on and if there are stuff that need X. And obviously if there is ongoing work to make it display server independent.

As for Vbox needing 5.6. I don't have 5.6 on my system (5.12.x) and it works. So unless there are some kind of 5.6 dependencies/libs/or whatever build in the package something is wrong with your info.

[Ashark]

Why would you want to get into that adventure? No clue...

The problem with Xwayland is that apps using it are auto scaled in multi-dpi setups, so you have blurry fonts and UI (at least currently).

[mpack]

That seems to be generic commentary on Xwayland rather than any VirtualBox discussion.

I'm going to lock this topic: Socratis isn't around any more, so attempts to debate with him will be pointless.