Ubuntu 24.04 build system for sway and related tools.
Even though most of these tools (including sway and wlroots) are now available in Ubuntu, they move and evolve pretty quickly and I prefer to keep up to date with those.
This repository contains a Makefile-based build system for all of these. We are NOT building deb packages (see my old repository which did if you want to do so), but we're directly building from source and installing as root.
You can safely ignore this note if this is the first time you're installing Sway and all the other apps from this repo.
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Wofi has been removed from our install targets as it's now semi-abandoned. It is, however, available to install from Ubuntu's repos via
apt install wofiif you need it. Make sure you clean the compiled version up from the system:cd wofi sudo ninja -C build uninstall -
Python's pip is now refusing to install global packages and instead recommending to use pipx to do so. I have migrated all such installs to pipx, but it means you need to clean up
mesonandninja:sudo pip3 uninstall meson ninja --break-system-packages
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After cleaning up meson and ninja, you need to install dependencies again as there are new ones, including meson and ninja. Run
make yolo -e UPDATE=trueto do so but also re-compile everything with the new base libraries.
A lot of these have actual Ubuntu packages now, however, it is possible to install them at the same time as the versions you compile from here. System packages typically go to the /usr/ prefix and manually compiled ones to /usr/local, so it is a matter of setting up your shell's path correctly (giving preference to /usr/local/bin over /usr/bin or /bin) as well as LD_LIBRARY_PATH (see note below).
Core:
- Sway
- wlroots
- seatd
Apps:
- clipman
- kanshi
- mako
- nwg-panel
- rofi (wayland fork)
- swaylock-effects
- swayimg
- waybar
- wdisplays
- wf-recorder
- xdg-desktop-portal-wlr (for screen sharing)
Wayfire apps:
- wayfire / wf-config / wcm
- wf-shell
Debs:
- wayland-protocols 1.35
- libinput 1.26
There are (unmaintained) branches of this project for earlier versions of Ubuntu. They won't receive any fixes unless contributed by the community, as I have moved on from using them. PRs more than welcome.
I usually switch to the next Ubuntu a few weeks before release, so typically old branches will have the very latest versions of the apps that are physically compilable given the libraries available.
No reason it won't work. The debs files (if any) might pose a problem though as they are typically backported from the next Ubuntu version into the current when needed, and won't be needed on the next version, so make sure you tweak the Makefile not to install them.
There are some arch-specific packages in debs/ so make sure you don't try to install these and instead use apt download from a docker container of a newer version of Ubuntu to download them.
You must make sure that
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
or
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/
is set on your environment before starting Sway. This is required so that any apps you compile here can find each other's library, as they're placed somewhere else than Ubuntu's default library path.
Some operations require root to complete - typically anything that requires access to /usr/local/. See Makefile for details.
While building, sudo will be run at some point to do so, and your password will be asked.
Make sure you uninstall meson and ninja if you've already installed them via Ubuntu's package manager. Sway and wlroots routinely require the very latest versions of both, so we'll be installing the latest versions using pipx instead.
gitlsb-releasemakesudo
Everything else can be installed via the provided targets in the Makefile.
The first time, you should probably run
make yolo
This will clone all the app's git repos, install dev dependencies and tools required to build everything, then it proceeds to build each project in sequence.
Have a look at the Makefile for all the different build targets, in case you want to build this or the other app. I for instance build wlroots and sway once a week, for which I have
make core
If you just want to update the apps (not wlroots and Sway):
make apps
Simply pass -e UPDATE=true to make:
make mako -e UPDATE=true
At the top of the Makefile you'll see one variable per app that defines which version of that app to build that you can override via environment. By version, I mean either a git hash, a branch, or a tag - we will simply be running git checkout $APP_VERSION before building that app.
For instance, if I wanted to build wlroots 0.11.0, sway 1.5 and swaylock-effects master while making sure we're on the absolute latest commits for each:
make core swaylock-build -e SWAY_VERSION=1.5 -e WLROOTS_VERSION=0.11.0 -e UPDATE=true
Note the lack of SWAYLOCK_VERSION up there - master is already the default.
You can create a .env file and place any overrides to environment variables in there if you need to. This allows you to for these values more permanently and conveniently than the command line (make -e FOO=bar ...) arguments, and without changing the Makefile which is handy if you need to do a git pull on this project. The .env file is ignored in source control and as such you need to create it yourself if you need it.
Example syntax:
SWAY_VERSION=master
WLROOTS_VERSION=master
SOME_APP_BUILD_MODIFIER_VAR=yes
When installing the stuff we're compiling, ninja will be copying the relevant files wherever they need to be in the system, without creating a deb package. Therefore, apt autoremove app won't work.
So far all the apps in the repo except for clipman use meson and ninja for building. As long as you don't delete the APP/build repository you can uninstall from the system anything ninja installs:
cd APP
sudo ninja -C build uninstall
If you deleted the build folder on the app, simply build the app again (on the same version as before) before running the command above.
This goes without saying, but if you're updating wlroots or seatd make sure they're built first (seatd, then wlroots) so that any of the other apps that link against it (like sway) have the right version to link against instead of linking against the version you're replacing.
Ubuntu 24.04 comes with all the plumbing to make it all work:
- pipewire 0.3
- wireplumber
- xdg-desktop-portal-gtk with the correct build flags
xdg-desktop-portal-wlr does not support window sharing, only entire outputs. No way around this. Apps won't show anything on the window list when asked to initiate a screen-sharing session.
make xdg-desktop-portal-wlr-build -e UPDATE=true
This will compile & install & make available the wlr portal to xdg-desktop-portal.
After that, make sure systemd has the following env var XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=sway. This won't work by merely setting that env var before you start sway. The best way is to create a file containing that at ~/.config/environment.d/xdg.conf, like so. Then reboot.
When choosing to share a screen from an app, xdpw won't give it a list of available windows or screens for the app to display and for you to choose from. Instead, you'll need to tell your app to share everything and after that, the xdpw's output chooser will kick in.
By default it'll be slurp - your cursor will change to crosshairs (✛) and you'll be able to click on a screen to share only that one.
The chooser is configurable, see docs here: https://github.com/emersion/xdg-desktop-portal-wlr/blob/master/xdg-desktop-portal-wlr.5.scd#output-chooser
For instance, if you'd like to use rofi/dmenu, place the following on ~/config/xdg-desktop-portal-wlr/config
[screencast]
chooser_type=dmenu
chooser_cmd=rofi -dmenu
The actual defaults (if you had no config file) are:
[screencast]
chooser_type=simple
chooser_cmd="slurp -f %o -o"
Should work out of the box on Firefox 84+ using the wayland backend.
When you start screen sharing, on the dialog asking you what to share tell it to "Use operating system settings" when prompted. After that, the output chooser for xdpw will kick in, as explained in the previous section.
It should work out of the box when using the wayland backend, but if it doesn't open chrome://flags and ensure WebRTC PipeWire support is enabled.