WESTON(1)WESTON(1)NAMEweston - the reference Wayland server
SYNOPSISwestonDESCRIPTIONweston is the reference implementation of a Wayland server. A Wayland
server is a display server, a window manager, and a compositor all in
one. Weston has several backends as loadable modules: it can run on
Linux KMS (kernel modesetting via DRM), as an X client, or inside
another Wayland server instance.
Weston supports fundamentally different graphical user interface para‐
digms via shell plugins. Two plugins are provided: the desktop shell,
and the tablet shell.
When weston is started as the first windowing system (i.e. not under X
nor under another Wayland server), it should be done with the command
weston-launch to set up proper privileged access to devices.
Weston also supports X clients via XWayland, see below.
BACKENDS
drm-backend.so
The DRM backend uses Linux KMS for output and evdev devices for
input. It supports multiple monitors in a unified desktop with
DPMS. See weston-drm(7), if installed.
wayland-backend.so
The Wayland backend runs on another Wayland server, a different
Weston instance, for example. Weston shows up as a single desk‐
top window on the parent server.
x11-backend.so
The X11 backend runs on an X server. Each Weston output becomes
an X window. This is a cheap way to test multi-monitor support
of a Wayland shell, desktop, or applications.
SHELLS
Each of these shells have its own public protocol interface for
clients. This means that a client must be specifically written for a
shell protocol, otherwise it will not work.
Desktop shell
Desktop shell is like a modern X desktop environment, concen‐
trating on traditional keyboard and mouse user interfaces and
the familiar desktop-like window management. Desktop shell con‐
sists of the shell plugin desktop-shell.so and the special
client weston-desktop-shell which provides the wallpaper, panel,
and screen locking dialog.
Fullscreen shell
Fullscreen shell is intended for a client that needs to take
over whole outputs, often all outputs. This is primarily
intended for running another compositor on Weston. The other
compositor does not need to handle any platform-specifics like
DRM/KMS or evdev/libinput. The shell consists only of the shell
plugin fullscreen-shell.so.
IVI-shell
In-vehicle infotainment shell is a special purpose shell that
exposes a GENIVI Layer Manager compatible API to controller mod‐
ules, and a very simple shell protocol towards clients. IVI-
shell starts with loading ivi-shell.so, and then a controller
module which may launch helper clients.
XWAYLAND
XWayland requires a special X.org server to be installed. This X server
will connect to a Wayland server as a Wayland client, and X clients
will connect to the X server. XWayland provides backwards compatibility
to X applications in a Wayland stack.
XWayland is activated by instructing weston to load xwayland.so module,
see EXAMPLES. Weston starts listening on a new X display socket, and
exports it in the environment variable DISPLAY. When the first X
client connects, Weston launches a special X server as a Wayland client
to handle the X client and all future X clients.
It has also its own X window manager where cursor themes and sizes can
be chosen using XCURSOR_PATH and XCURSOR_SIZE environment variables.
See ENVIRONMENT.
OPTIONS
Weston core options:
-Bbackend.so, --backend=backend.so
Load backend.so instead of the default backend. The file is
searched for in /usr/local/lib/weston, or you can pass an abso‐
lute path. The default backend is drm-backend.so unless the
environment suggests otherwise, see DISPLAY and WAYLAND_DISPLAY.
-cconfig.ini, --config=config.ini
Load config.ini instead of weston.ini. The argument can also be
an absolute path starting with a /. If the path is not abso‐
lute, it will be searched in the normal config paths, see
weston.ini(5). If also --no-config is given, no configuration
file will be read.
--version
Print the program version.
-h, --help
Print a summary of command line options, and quit.
-iN, --idle-time=N
Set the idle timeout to N seconds. The default timeout is 300
seconds. When there has not been any user input for the idle
timeout, Weston enters an inactive mode. The screen fades to
black, monitors may switch off, and the shell may lock the ses‐
sion. A value of 0 effectively disables the timeout.
--log=file.log
Append log messages to the file file.log instead of writing them
to stderr.
--modules=module1.so,module2.so
Load the comma-separated list of modules. Only used by the test
suite. The file is searched for in /usr/local/lib/weston, or you
can pass an absolute path.
--no-config
Do not read weston.ini for the compositor. Avoids e.g. loading
compositor modules via the configuration file, which is useful
for unit tests.
-Sname, --socket=name
Weston will listen in the Wayland socket called name. Weston
will export WAYLAND_DISPLAY with this value in the environment
for all child processes to allow them to connect to the right
server automatically.
DRM backend options:
See weston-drm(7).
Wayland backend options:
--display=display
Name of the Wayland display to connect to, see also WAYLAND_DIS‐
PLAY of the environment.
--fullscreen
Create a single fullscreen output
--output-count=N
Create N Wayland windows to emulate the same number of outputs.
--width=W, --height=H
Make all outputs have a size of WxH pixels.
--scale=N
Give all outputs a scale factor of N.
--use-pixman
Use the pixman renderer. By default, weston will try to use EGL
and GLES2 for rendering and will fall back to the pixman-based
renderer for software compositing if EGL cannot be used. Pass‐
ing this option will force weston to use the pixman renderer.
X11 backend options:
--fullscreen
--no-input
Do not provide any input devices. Used for testing input-less
Weston.
--output-count=N
Create N X windows to emulate the same number of outputs.
--width=W, --height=H
Make the default size of each X window WxH pixels.
--scale=N
Give all outputs a scale factor of N.
--use-pixman
Use the pixman renderer. By default weston will try to use EGL
and GLES2 for rendering. Passing this option will make weston
use the pixman library for software compsiting.
FILES
If the environment variable is set, the configuration file is read from
the respective path, or the current directory if neither is set.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/weston.ini
$HOME/.config/weston.ini
./weston.ini
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY
The X display. If DISPLAY is set, and WAYLAND_DISPLAY is not
set, the default backend becomes x11-backend.so.
WAYLAND_DEBUG
If set to any value, causes libwayland to print the live proto‐
col to stderr.
WAYLAND_DISPLAY
The name of the display (socket) of an already running Wayland
server, without the path. The directory path is always taken
from XDG_RUNTIME_DIR. If WAYLAND_DISPLAY is not set, the socket
name is "wayland-0".
If WAYLAND_DISPLAY is already set, the default backend becomes
wayland-backend.so. This allows launching Weston as a nested
server.
WAYLAND_SOCKET
For Wayland clients, holds the file descriptor of an open local
socket to a Wayland server.
WESTON_CONFIG_FILE
Weston sets this variable to the absolute path of the configura‐
tion file it loads, or to the empty string if no file is used.
Programs that use weston.ini will read the file specified by
this variable instead, or do not read any file if it is empty.
Unset variable causes falling back to the default name
weston.ini.
XCURSOR_PATH
Set the list of paths to look for cursors in. It changes both
libwayland-cursor and libXcursor, so it affects both Wayland and
X11 based clients. See xcursor (3).
XCURSOR_SIZE
This variable can be set for choosing an specific size of cur‐
sor. Affect Wayland and X11 clients. See xcursor (3).
XDG_CONFIG_HOME
If set, specifies the directory where to look for weston.ini.
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
The directory for Weston's socket and lock files. Wayland
clients will automatically use this.
DIAGNOSTICS
Weston has a segmentation fault handler, that attempts to restore the
virtual console or ungrab X before raising SIGTRAP. If you run weston
under gdb(1) from an X11 terminal or a different virtual terminal, and
tell gdb
handle SIGSEGV nostop
This will allow weston to switch back to gdb on crash and then gdb will
catch the crash with SIGTRAP.
BUGS
Bugs should be reported to the freedesktop.org bugzilla at
https://bugs.freedesktop.org with product "Wayland" and component
"weston".
WWW
http://wayland.freedesktop.org/
EXAMPLES
Launch Weston with the DRM backend on a VT
weston-launch
Launch Weston with the DRM backend and XWayland support
weston-launch -- --modules=xwayland.so
Launch Weston (wayland-1) nested in another Weston instance (wayland-0)
WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0 weston-Swayland-1
From an X terminal, launch Weston with the x11 backend
westonSEE ALSOweston-drm(7)Weston 1.9.0 2012-11-27 WESTON(1)
