Press "Enter" to skip to content

Using Google Chrome/Chromium with native Wayland backend in Arch Linux

PY Chuang PY Chuang
January 4, 2021
10 Comments

Update on Oct 28, 2021: the bug mentioned in the update of Sep 22 has been fixed.

Update on Sep 22, 2021: there’s a bug affecting using Wayland Chrome/Chromium/Electron in the latest Sway/wlroots (i.e., the latest git commit). See https://github.com/swaywm/wlroots/issues/3168 and https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1246834. Before the bug is resolved, either use the released versions of Sway/wlroots, or just wait.

In the past, we may need to use XWayland when using Google Chrome or Chromium under the Wayland environment. But now (as of 01/04/2021), it’s possible to use native Wayland with Google Chrome/Chromium and even electron-based apps if they are installed through the official repository or AUR.

Just launch Google Chrome/Chromium with two additional flags:

$ google-chrome-stable --enable-features=UseOzonePlatform --ozone-platform=wayland

or

chromium --enable-features=UseOzonePlatform --ozone-platform=wayland

It’s the same for electron-based apps:

<app executable> --enable-features=UseOzonePlatform --ozone-platform=wayland

Categories:Arch Linux

10 Comments

  1. Anonymous Anonymous
    works! thx
    April 1, 2021 Reply
  2. Luis Luis
    it’s amazing. google chrome fast open with wayland, thank
    June 23, 2021 Reply
  3. perdak perdak
    Why you still have to fuck with additional parameters to run chrome in wayland ?
    October 25, 2021 Reply
    • PY Chuang PY Chuang
      You probably don’t. The upstream’s roadmap was to make Ozone the default and discard these flags in the second half of 2021, which is now. I don’t know their progress because I don’t use Chrome now. No matter what, older electron-based apps still need these flags until the developers upgrade their Electron.
      Read more
      October 25, 2021 Reply
    • Diego Diego
      no, just change chrome://flags/#ozone-platform-hint to auto
      February 3, 2022 Reply
      • kmfslasher kmfslasher
        Chrome Works well! You saved me much troubleshooting! Thanks!
        April 30, 2022 Reply
  4. Anonymous Anonymous
    Any luck sharing an application window into a Google Meet?
    November 21, 2021 Reply
    • Encrypted Cicada Encrypted Cicada
      go to chrome://flags and search for wayland. there’ll be a setting “WebRTC PipeWire support”, put that on enabled and restart. Then you can share your application window or the entire screen via meet. Just make sure to select “Emtire Screen” option on the first prompt and then there’ll be a second prompt where you’ll be able to select the window to share.
      Read more
      November 30, 2021 Reply
  5. Shawn Shawn
    Wondering why links in external applications wont launch when wayland is set in Chromium. Clicking a link in email or dolphin flashes the icon orange if the browser is open and/or minified. This doesn’t occur when X11 is set in Chromium, just wayland.
    September 11, 2023 Reply
  6. Mike Mike
    @Shawn, you are right. I’ve been struggling with the same issue. Any browser that is launched as Wayland native window, doesn’t open to the foreground when a link is clicked in external app. See my topics and bug reports: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/firefox-doesnt-raise-window-after-clicking-a-link-on-wayland/154842/26 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1873981 I will report it to Wayland, if possible, because this is a big regression IMO.
    Read more
    January 16, 2024 Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.