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[http://swaywm.org Sway] is a tiling [[Wayland]] compositor. It's a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager.
[https://swaywm.org Sway] is a tiling [[Wayland]] compositor and a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager for X11. It works with your existing i3 configuration and supports most of i3's features, plus a few extras.


== Prerequisites ==
== Installation ==
=== Add a normal user ===
 
Use <code>setup-user</code> to add a non-system normal user for running Sway.
 
=== Set up eudev ===
 
[[eudev]] is recommended and required for. Without it, sway cannot connect to input devices.
 
setup-devd udev
 
=== Install Graphics Drivers ===
 
Graphics drivers:
 
* [[Intel Video]]
* [[Radeon Video]]
* [[Nvidia Video]]
 
=== Setting up a seat manager ===
 
Wayland compositors need raw access to input and output devices. This is mediated by a [[seat manager]]. Using either [[seatd]] or [[elogind]] is supported. Using both may lead to conflicts.
 
==== Install seatd ====
 
See [[Seatd]].
 
==== Install elogind ====
 
See [[Elogind]].
 
===== Elogind and swayidle =====
 
<code>swayidle</code> has integration with <code>elogind</code> and can handle <code>before-sleep</code> events.
 
If using <code>swayidle before-sleep</code>, there will be a race condition, so that when you resume the computer from suspend, the screen shows the contents of the unlocked screen for a second before showing the actual lock screen.  This can be a privacy concern.
 
To solve this issue, do the following:
 
Create this file <code>/etc/elogind/system-sleep/10-swaylock.sh</code>, then add the following script to this file:
 
#!/bin/sh
if [ "${1}" == "pre" ]; then
  touch /tmp/swaylock-sleep
  sleep 1
fi


First, install & configure eudev:
Then set it to executable.
 
Later, once sway is installed, add the following line to sway config:
 
# in ~/.config/sway/config
exec touch /tmp/swaylock-sleep && inotifyd swaylock /tmp/swaylock-sleep
 
With this line, the screen will be promptly locked before suspend-to-RAM starts.
 
=== Install greetd (optional) ===
 
{{Box YELLOW|Note:|This content is tangential, and should be moved into the '[[greetd]]' page}}
 
apk add greetd greetd-gtkgreet cage
rc-update add greetd
adduser greetd seat
 
In <code>/etc/greetd/config.toml</code>, set


<pre>
<pre>
# apk add eudev
[default_session]
# setup-udev
 
command = "cage -s -- gtkgreet"
</pre>
</pre>


Then install graphics drivers appropriate to your system:
To use a graphical greeter with seatd add <code>rc_need=seatd</code> to <code>/etc/conf.d/greetd</code>.


In <code>/etc/greetd/environments</code>, set
<pre>
<pre>
# apk add mesa-dri-gallium  # gallium
# Launch Sway with a D-Bus server available, use:
# apk add mesa-dri-classic  # or classic
dbus-run-session -- sway
</pre>
</pre>


The following links contain guides for setting up the video stack.
D-Bus is required for PipeWire and screensharing in Firefox and Chromium. Running with <code>dbus-run-session</code> is a convenience wrapper that will explicitly export the path of the session bus.
 
=== Install fonts ===
 
Install DejaVu fonts, which has good Unicode coverage:
 
apk add font-dejavu
 
=== Install Sway ===
 
apk add sway \
    xwayland            \ # if you need xserver
    foot                \ # default terminal emulator. Modify $term in config for a different one.
    wmenu                \ # default wayland native menu for choosing program and screensharing monitor
    swaylock swaylockd  \ # lockscreen tool
    grim                \ # screenshot tool
    wl-clipboard        \ # clipboard management
    i3status            \ # simple status bar
    swayidle              # idle management (DPMS) daemon
 
For complimentary software alternatives, see [https://github.com/swaywm/sway/wiki/Useful-add-ons-for-sway the relevant page from sway's wiki] or [https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/List_of_software_for_Wayland this list at Gentoo Wiki.]
 
== Configuration ==
 
Copy default sway configuration to <code>~/.config</code>:
 
# as normal user
mkdir -p ~/.config/sway
cp /etc/sway/config ~/.config/sway/
 
Read through it to learn the default keybindings.
Sway configuration is mostly backwards-compatible with that of [[I3wm|i3]] and if you are looking for a solution for a specific issue, you may also try checking if it hasn't been provided for i3WM.
 
For additional information, start at <code>man 5 sway</code> and read the [https://github.com/swaywm/sway/wiki upstream wiki].
 
== PipeWire and enable screensharing ==
 
For audio playback, either PipeWire or PulseAudio work fine. The compositor has no involvement in audio playback.
 
For screen sharing, applications are split into two categories:
 
* Those which use the native wayland protocol, </code>wlr-screencopy</code>
* Those which use the API from Flatpak's <code>xdg-desktop-portal</code> (this portal is also used by native non-Flatpak applications).
 
Applications in the first group require not additional setup. Applications in the second group (which includes Firefox and Chromium) require setting up pipewire, wireplumber and xdg portals:
 
{{Todo|Move this content into [[PipeWire]].}}
 
apk add pipewire pipewire-pulse pipewire-tools
apk add wireplumber
apk add xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-wlr
 
Launch PipeWire with Sway. Use your service manager of choice, or add the following to sway config:
 
exec /usr/libexec/pipewire-launcher
 
If your are using automatic D-Bus activation, you also need to set DBus variables for the portal and screensharing features to work:
 
exec dbus-update-activation-environment WAYLAND_DISPLAY XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=sway
 
{{Box YELLOW|Unclear:|The following paragraph is unclear and needs further work}}
 
Replace dmenu (depends on X server) with bemenu (Wayland native) for launching programs and selecting which screen to share in Firefox/Chromium:
 
set $menu bemenu-run | xargs swaymsg exec
 
== Screen lock and suspend-to-RAM ==
 
=== Without elogind ===
 
Consider using {{Pkg|powerctl}}.
 
=== With elogind ===
 
Putting the system to sleep with elogind requires elevated privileges or additional configuration.
 
For details on configuring <code>doas</code> with <code>elogind</code>, see [[Elogind#Doas]]
 
To put the system to sleep after 600 seconds, use:
 
exec swayidle -w timeout 600 'doas /bin/loginctl suspend'
 
loginctl suspend command will trigger the screenlock, as mentioned in the section [[#Install elogind (optional)|Install elogind (optional)]] above.
 
Do not lock the screen if program is running in full screen:
 
for_window [app_id="^.*"] inhibit_idle fullscreen
 
== Brightness control ==
 
Controlling display backlight requires either the proper udev rules, or using some form of privilege escalation.


* [[Intel Video]]
{{Pkg|brightnessctl}} is a reliable alternative, although its default udev rules require too wide permissions (see {{Issue|15409}}). You may need your own rules, or configure doas to allow running it as an unprivileged user.
* [[Radeon Video]]
 
Optionally enable brightnessctl service to restore brightness settings on reboot:
 
rc-update add brightnessctl
 
== Output scaling for high resolution displays ==
 
Without further configuration, program interfaces might be too small to use on high resolution displays.
 
Sway supports the per-display configuration of
 
* fractional (e.g., 1.5x), and
* integer scaling (e.g., 2x)
 
However, fractional scaling is discouraged due to both the performance impact and the blurry output it produces. In this case, where 1x scaling is too small and 2x scaling is too large, program-specific GTK/QT based scaling is recommended.  See below.


Add yourself to the input and video groups:
To enable Sway scaling, the user can first preview different scaling factors with <code>wdisplays</code> package.  Note the output name (eDP-1, LVDS-1) and try apply scaling factors such as 1 and 2.  To make changes permanent, add


<pre>
<pre>
# adduser $USER input
output <name> scale <factor>
# adduser $USER video
</pre>
</pre>


You have to log out and back in for this to take effect.
to ~/.config/sway/config.
 
To use toolkit scaling, use
{{Cmd|# for GTK-based programs such as firefox and emacs:
export GDK_DPI_SCALE{{=}}2
 
<nowiki>#</nowiki> for QT-based programs
export QT_WAYLAND_FORCE_DPI{{=}}"physical"
<nowiki>#</nowiki> or if still too small, use a custom DPI
export QT_WAYLAND_FORCE_DPI{{=}}192 # 2x scaling
export QT_QPA_PLATFORM{{=}}"wayland-egl"
}}


Install some TTF fonts:


== Screenshots ==
A simple tool that works well under Wayland is Grimshot. Example keybindings:
<pre>
<pre>
# apk add ttf-dejavu
bindsym Print exec grimshot copy area
bindsym Shift+Print exec grimshot copy screen
bindsym Control+Print exec grimshot save area ~/Pictures/$(date +%d-%m-%Y-%H-%M-%S).png
bindsym Control+Shift+Print exec grimshot save screen ~/Pictures/$(date +%d-%m-%Y-%H-%M-%S).png
</pre>
</pre>


Since sway 1.6.1 (more specifically, since wlroots 0.14), you need to set up libseat backend if you wish to run sway directly (without nesting it in another wayland compositor). To do that, choose one of the following methods:
See [https://github.com/swaywm/sway/wiki/Useful-add-ons-for-sway the sway wiki's article] for a list of screenshot tools.


<dl>
== Tweaks ==
 
=== Make clipboard content persistent ===
By default the clipboard content does not persist after terminating the program: you copy some text from Firefox and then exit Firefox, the copied text is also lost.
 
Install clipman from testing repo and add the following to sway config:


<dt>seatd daemon</dt>
<dd>
<pre>
<pre>
# apk add seatd
exec wl-paste --type text/plain --watch clipman store --histpath="~/.local/state/clipman-primary.json"
# rc-update add seatd
bindsym $mod+h exec clipman pick --tool wofi --histpath="~/.local/state/clipman-primary.json"
# rc-service seatd start
# adduser $USER seat
</pre>
</pre>


If you are already logged in as a $USER, you will need to relogin.
=== Firefox picture-in-picture mode/floating windows ===
</dd>
Add this to your sway config file (modify the numeric values to suit your needs and your display):
 
<dt>seatd-launch</dt>
<dd>
<pre>
<pre>
# apk add seatd-launch
for_window [app_id="firefox" title="^Picture-in-Picture$"] floating enable, move position 877 450, sticky enable, border none
</pre>
</pre>


When starting sway, you will need to prefix invocation with <code>seatd-launch</code>. 
=== Start with NumLock enabled ===
Note: <code>seatd-launch</code> is a suid binary, so it might be wise to use one of the other methods from a security perspective.
Add this to your sway config file:
</dd>
<code>input type:keyboard xkb_numlock enabled</code>


<dt>elogind daemon</dt>
=== Change mouse cursor theme and size ===
<dd>
Add to your sway config:


<pre>
seat seat0 xcursor_theme my_cursor_theme my_cursor_size
# apk add elogind polkit-elogind
# rc-update add elogind
# rc-service elogind start
</pre>


Using <code>elogind</code> will automatically set the necessary permissions, so you can skip adding groups like <code>seat</code> and <code>video</code>
For example, set a mouse cursor, using GNOME Adwaita theme:


</dd>
seat seat0 xcursor_theme Adwaita 16


</dl>
You can inspect their values with <code>echo $XCURSOR_SIZE</code> and <code>echo $XCURSOR_THEME</code>. If reloading your config does not result in change, try logging out and in.


== Installation ==
{{Note|Wayland allows for client-side cursors. It is possible that applications do not evaluate the values of <code>$XCURSOR_SIZE</code> and <code>$XCURSOR_THEME</code>.}}


We can now install sway:
=== Custom keyboard layout ===


To use custom keyboard layout, just use
<pre>
<pre>
# apk add sway sway-doc
input type:keyboard {
# apk add                \ # Install optional dependencies:
  xkb_file /path/to/my/custom/layout
    xwayland            \ # recommended for compatibility reasons
}
    foot                \ # default terminal emulator
    dmenu                \ # default application launcher
    swaylock            \ # lockscreen tool
    swayidle              # idle management (DPMS) daemon
</pre>
</pre>


== Running Sway ==
=== Changing default application fonts ===


{{Note|
See [[Fontconfig]]
Skip setting XDG_RUNTIME_DIR if you are using elogind }}


To run sway, first set XDG_RUNTIME_DIR to a suitable location (e.g. /tmp). Install & configure elogind to skip this step. Then run sway from the Linux console:
== Troubleshooting ==


If you encounter any issues, try running <code>sway -Vc /etc/sway/config</code>. It will run sway with the default config file and set the output to be more verbose. It is generally a good idea to track your config files with git (when and if at all you use a remote repository for them, keep it private for security reasons).
=== Flatpaks ===
{{main|Flatpak}}
Due to their sandboxing, flatpaks require the use of a portal frontend (xdg-desktop-portal) and backends (such as xdg-desktop-portal-wlr, xdg-desktop-portal-gtk, xdg-desktop-portal-gnome) that implement the methods. When in doubt, install multiple backends. For more information on backends, see [https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal/#using-portals flatpak's page on the subject]. In addition to the steps under the "Firefox Screensharing" section, it may also be necessary to launch additional backends in your Sway config file. Otherwise, you may run into GDBus errors as your flatpak fails to interface with the portal. This can cause issues such as with opening your file directories from a flatpak application.
After installing different backends, you might need to add the relevant backends to your sway config file similarly to in the "Firefox Screensharing" section above. For example, an autostart section of your sway config file may include:
<pre>
<pre>
$ XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp sway
exec /usr/libexec/xdg-desktop-portal-gtk
exec /usr/libexec/xdg-desktop-portal-wlr
exec /usr/libexec/xdg-desktop-portal-gnome
</pre>
</pre>


(if you run sway with seatd-launch, you will need to use <code>$ XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp seatd-launch sway</code>)
This is only needed if they are not started automatically via other means.


See the [https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Wayland Wayland] page for a permanent configuration
=== Firefox (Flatpak) and/or GTK apps ===
==== Disappearing cursor ====
You may need to get an icon pack and possibly a theme from [https://www.pling.com/browse?cat=107&ord=latest Pling store] and set <code>GTK_THEME</code> environmental variable. Alternatively you can install a theme      for all users (search [https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/ Alpine Linux Packages] for ''*-icon-theme'') using <code>apk add</code>.


{{Note|
==== Missing file picker/cannot download ====
swaylock needs to be able to read your <code>/etc/shadow</code> file to be able to validate your password
 
}}
Go to ''about:config'' and set <code>widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.file-picker</code> to 0.
 
=== Failing to start under certain graphics cards/multiple wlroots stacked windows spawning upon start ===
As of Dec 31 2022, [https://developer.nvidia.com/docs/drive/drive-os/latest/linux/sdk/common/topics/window_system_stub/Gnome-WaylandDesktopShellSupport136.html Nvidia still doesn't fully support Wayland]. Therefore, the possible solutions are as outlined in the link, or setting your WLR_BACKENDS environmental variables to <code>drm,libinput</code> or <code>x11</code> (add libinput here as well if you cannot use your mouse and keyboard after starting Sway). The latter also works for AMD/ATI cards ('''make sure to install libinput first''').
 
=== Sway socket not detected ===


== Configuration and Usage ==
See [[Sway#Installation|Installation]] for instructions on how to set this environmental variable. This issue may occur with terminal multiplexers, such as [[tmux]]


An example config is provided at <code>/etc/sway/config</code>. Copy it to <code>~/.config/sway/config</code> and read through it to learn the default keybindings.


For additional information, start at <code>man 5 sway</code> and read the [https://github.com/swaywm/sway/wiki upstream FAQ].
== See Also ==
* [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Sway Archwiki]
* [https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Sway Gentoo Wiki]
* [https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Sway PostmarketOS Wiki]


[[Category:Desktop]]
[[Category:Desktop]]
[[Category:Window Managers]]
[[Category:Wayland]]

Latest revision as of 21:43, 6 March 2024

Sway is a tiling Wayland compositor and a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager for X11. It works with your existing i3 configuration and supports most of i3's features, plus a few extras.

Installation

Add a normal user

Use setup-user to add a non-system normal user for running Sway.

Set up eudev

eudev is recommended and required for. Without it, sway cannot connect to input devices.

setup-devd udev

Install Graphics Drivers

Graphics drivers:

Setting up a seat manager

Wayland compositors need raw access to input and output devices. This is mediated by a seat manager. Using either seatd or elogind is supported. Using both may lead to conflicts.

Install seatd

See Seatd.

Install elogind

See Elogind.

Elogind and swayidle

swayidle has integration with elogind and can handle before-sleep events.

If using swayidle before-sleep, there will be a race condition, so that when you resume the computer from suspend, the screen shows the contents of the unlocked screen for a second before showing the actual lock screen. This can be a privacy concern.

To solve this issue, do the following:

Create this file /etc/elogind/system-sleep/10-swaylock.sh, then add the following script to this file:

#!/bin/sh
if [ "${1}" == "pre" ]; then
  touch /tmp/swaylock-sleep
  sleep 1
fi

Then set it to executable.

Later, once sway is installed, add the following line to sway config:

# in ~/.config/sway/config
exec touch /tmp/swaylock-sleep && inotifyd swaylock /tmp/swaylock-sleep

With this line, the screen will be promptly locked before suspend-to-RAM starts.

Install greetd (optional)

Note: This content is tangential, and should be moved into the 'greetd' page
apk add greetd greetd-gtkgreet cage
rc-update add greetd
adduser greetd seat

In /etc/greetd/config.toml, set

[default_session]

command = "cage -s -- gtkgreet"

To use a graphical greeter with seatd add rc_need=seatd to /etc/conf.d/greetd.

In /etc/greetd/environments, set

# Launch Sway with a D-Bus server available, use:
dbus-run-session -- sway

D-Bus is required for PipeWire and screensharing in Firefox and Chromium. Running with dbus-run-session is a convenience wrapper that will explicitly export the path of the session bus.

Install fonts

Install DejaVu fonts, which has good Unicode coverage:

apk add font-dejavu

Install Sway

apk add sway \
   xwayland             \ # if you need xserver
   foot                 \ # default terminal emulator. Modify $term in config for a different one.
   wmenu                \ # default wayland native menu for choosing program and screensharing monitor
   swaylock swaylockd   \ # lockscreen tool
   grim                 \ # screenshot tool
   wl-clipboard         \ # clipboard management
   i3status             \ # simple status bar
   swayidle               # idle management (DPMS) daemon

For complimentary software alternatives, see the relevant page from sway's wiki or this list at Gentoo Wiki.

Configuration

Copy default sway configuration to ~/.config:

# as normal user
mkdir -p ~/.config/sway
cp /etc/sway/config ~/.config/sway/

Read through it to learn the default keybindings. Sway configuration is mostly backwards-compatible with that of i3 and if you are looking for a solution for a specific issue, you may also try checking if it hasn't been provided for i3WM.

For additional information, start at man 5 sway and read the upstream wiki.

PipeWire and enable screensharing

For audio playback, either PipeWire or PulseAudio work fine. The compositor has no involvement in audio playback.

For screen sharing, applications are split into two categories:

  • Those which use the native wayland protocol, wlr-screencopy
  • Those which use the API from Flatpak's xdg-desktop-portal (this portal is also used by native non-Flatpak applications).

Applications in the first group require not additional setup. Applications in the second group (which includes Firefox and Chromium) require setting up pipewire, wireplumber and xdg portals:

Todo: Move this content into PipeWire.


apk add pipewire pipewire-pulse pipewire-tools
apk add wireplumber
apk add xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-wlr

Launch PipeWire with Sway. Use your service manager of choice, or add the following to sway config:

exec /usr/libexec/pipewire-launcher

If your are using automatic D-Bus activation, you also need to set DBus variables for the portal and screensharing features to work:

exec dbus-update-activation-environment WAYLAND_DISPLAY XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=sway
Unclear: The following paragraph is unclear and needs further work

Replace dmenu (depends on X server) with bemenu (Wayland native) for launching programs and selecting which screen to share in Firefox/Chromium:

set $menu bemenu-run | xargs swaymsg exec

Screen lock and suspend-to-RAM

Without elogind

Consider using powerctl.

With elogind

Putting the system to sleep with elogind requires elevated privileges or additional configuration.

For details on configuring doas with elogind, see Elogind#Doas

To put the system to sleep after 600 seconds, use:

exec swayidle -w timeout 600 'doas /bin/loginctl suspend'

loginctl suspend command will trigger the screenlock, as mentioned in the section Install elogind (optional) above.

Do not lock the screen if program is running in full screen:

for_window [app_id="^.*"] inhibit_idle fullscreen

Brightness control

Controlling display backlight requires either the proper udev rules, or using some form of privilege escalation.

brightnessctl is a reliable alternative, although its default udev rules require too wide permissions (see #15409). You may need your own rules, or configure doas to allow running it as an unprivileged user.

Optionally enable brightnessctl service to restore brightness settings on reboot:

rc-update add brightnessctl

Output scaling for high resolution displays

Without further configuration, program interfaces might be too small to use on high resolution displays.

Sway supports the per-display configuration of

  • fractional (e.g., 1.5x), and
  • integer scaling (e.g., 2x)

However, fractional scaling is discouraged due to both the performance impact and the blurry output it produces. In this case, where 1x scaling is too small and 2x scaling is too large, program-specific GTK/QT based scaling is recommended. See below.

To enable Sway scaling, the user can first preview different scaling factors with wdisplays package. Note the output name (eDP-1, LVDS-1) and try apply scaling factors such as 1 and 2. To make changes permanent, add

output <name> scale <factor>

to ~/.config/sway/config.

To use toolkit scaling, use

# for GTK-based programs such as firefox and emacs: export GDK_DPI_SCALE=2 # for QT-based programs export QT_WAYLAND_FORCE_DPI="physical" # or if still too small, use a custom DPI export QT_WAYLAND_FORCE_DPI=192 # 2x scaling export QT_QPA_PLATFORM="wayland-egl"


Screenshots

A simple tool that works well under Wayland is Grimshot. Example keybindings:

bindsym Print exec grimshot copy area
bindsym Shift+Print exec grimshot copy screen
bindsym Control+Print exec grimshot save area ~/Pictures/$(date +%d-%m-%Y-%H-%M-%S).png
bindsym Control+Shift+Print exec grimshot save screen ~/Pictures/$(date +%d-%m-%Y-%H-%M-%S).png

See the sway wiki's article for a list of screenshot tools.

Tweaks

Make clipboard content persistent

By default the clipboard content does not persist after terminating the program: you copy some text from Firefox and then exit Firefox, the copied text is also lost.

Install clipman from testing repo and add the following to sway config:

exec wl-paste --type text/plain --watch clipman store --histpath="~/.local/state/clipman-primary.json"
bindsym $mod+h exec clipman pick --tool wofi --histpath="~/.local/state/clipman-primary.json"

Firefox picture-in-picture mode/floating windows

Add this to your sway config file (modify the numeric values to suit your needs and your display):

for_window [app_id="firefox" title="^Picture-in-Picture$"] floating enable, move position 877 450, sticky enable, border none

Start with NumLock enabled

Add this to your sway config file: input type:keyboard xkb_numlock enabled

Change mouse cursor theme and size

Add to your sway config:

seat seat0 xcursor_theme my_cursor_theme my_cursor_size

For example, set a mouse cursor, using GNOME Adwaita theme:

seat seat0 xcursor_theme Adwaita 16

You can inspect their values with echo $XCURSOR_SIZE and echo $XCURSOR_THEME. If reloading your config does not result in change, try logging out and in.

Note: Wayland allows for client-side cursors. It is possible that applications do not evaluate the values of $XCURSOR_SIZE and $XCURSOR_THEME.

Custom keyboard layout

To use custom keyboard layout, just use

input type:keyboard {
  xkb_file /path/to/my/custom/layout
}

Changing default application fonts

See Fontconfig

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues, try running sway -Vc /etc/sway/config. It will run sway with the default config file and set the output to be more verbose. It is generally a good idea to track your config files with git (when and if at all you use a remote repository for them, keep it private for security reasons).

Flatpaks

Due to their sandboxing, flatpaks require the use of a portal frontend (xdg-desktop-portal) and backends (such as xdg-desktop-portal-wlr, xdg-desktop-portal-gtk, xdg-desktop-portal-gnome) that implement the methods. When in doubt, install multiple backends. For more information on backends, see flatpak's page on the subject. In addition to the steps under the "Firefox Screensharing" section, it may also be necessary to launch additional backends in your Sway config file. Otherwise, you may run into GDBus errors as your flatpak fails to interface with the portal. This can cause issues such as with opening your file directories from a flatpak application.

After installing different backends, you might need to add the relevant backends to your sway config file similarly to in the "Firefox Screensharing" section above. For example, an autostart section of your sway config file may include:

exec /usr/libexec/xdg-desktop-portal-gtk
exec /usr/libexec/xdg-desktop-portal-wlr
exec /usr/libexec/xdg-desktop-portal-gnome

This is only needed if they are not started automatically via other means.

Firefox (Flatpak) and/or GTK apps

Disappearing cursor

You may need to get an icon pack and possibly a theme from Pling store and set GTK_THEME environmental variable. Alternatively you can install a theme for all users (search Alpine Linux Packages for *-icon-theme) using apk add.

Missing file picker/cannot download

Go to about:config and set widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.file-picker to 0.

Failing to start under certain graphics cards/multiple wlroots stacked windows spawning upon start

As of Dec 31 2022, Nvidia still doesn't fully support Wayland. Therefore, the possible solutions are as outlined in the link, or setting your WLR_BACKENDS environmental variables to drm,libinput or x11 (add libinput here as well if you cannot use your mouse and keyboard after starting Sway). The latter also works for AMD/ATI cards (make sure to install libinput first).

Sway socket not detected

See Installation for instructions on how to set this environmental variable. This issue may occur with terminal multiplexers, such as tmux


See Also