If you install xfce, when you get the session list on lightdm you are
offered xfce (Wayland) session, however if you choose so and try to
logon to the session you are returned back to lightdm without any message.

xfce wayland session seems to work ok at least on sddm and gdm3, so the
problem seems to be with lightdm.

Regards.

Hi!

I was suspecting that all this was caused because the session is stablished
by /usr/share/wayland-sessions/xfce-wayland.desktop executing like this:
Exec=startxfce4 --wayland

Which means that it rins startxfce4 with an argument, it looked to me that
lightdm is trying to exec "startxfce4 --wayland" altogether.

So I did this test, copy xfce-wayland.desktop as xfce-way.desktop and modify
it so that it now reads: Exec=startxfce4way

End wrote a small script /usr/local/bin/startxfce4way which reads:
#!/bin/bash
exec startxfce4 --wayland $@

With this hack on lightdm runs the wayland session without any problem.

I wonder if this can be fixed on lightdm or if it would be better to assign
it to xfce4 and have it fixed there.

Regards...

reassign 1106079 xfce4-session
quit

I really think this should be solved in lightdm, but given the late in the
release cycle... maybe xfce4-session can include a workaround like the one I
descrive on the bug report and have this working for Trixie.

Regards.

Hi.

I'm not sure if the situation has improved regarding this bug for others too, but it seems I was able to start XFCE over Wayland once I installed labwc.

I tried logging in with the same menu as you did, and my .xsession-errors contained:
Xsession: X session started for olivier at dim. 28 juin 2026 17:25:08 CEST
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=XFCE
xrdb: Can't open display ''
xrdb: Can't open display ''
xhost:  unable to open display ""
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/xfce4:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting GTK_MODULES=gail:atk-bridge
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting QT_ACCESSIBILITY=1
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting USER=olivier
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting HOME=/home/olivier
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DESKTOP_SESSION=xfce-wayland
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting IM_CONFIG_ENTRY=xsession
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting GTK_MODULES=gail:atk-bridge
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting LOGNAME=olivier
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_SESSION_CLASS=user
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=XFCE
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=xfce-wayland
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_GREETER_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/lightdm/data/olivier
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting SHELL=/bin/bash
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting GDMSESSION=xfce-wayland
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting QT_ACCESSIBILITY=1
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting GPG_AGENT_INFO=/run/user/1000/gnupg/S.gpg-agent:0:1
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting PWD=/home/olivier
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/xfce4:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/
/usr/bin/startxfce4: Please either install labwc or specify another compositor as argument

I just installed labwc as advised by that last line, and it seems to work more or less.

Hope this helps,

Le Fri, Jun 06, 2025 at 03:24:59PM +0200, Santiago Garcia Mantinan a écrit :