XWayland

XWayland is an X server that runs as a Wayland client, enabling X11 applications to operate in environments that use the Wayland display server protocol. It provides a compatibility layer that translates X11 drawing and input requests into Wayland surface operations, allowing legacy X applications to run alongside native Wayland apps without modification.

In practice, XWayland is launched by a Wayland compositor and sits between the X11 client and the compositor. The X11 clients connect to XWayland as usual, while XWayland forwards graphical output to a corresponding Wayland surface and passes input events from the compositor back to the X11 client. This setup allows window management, decorations, and clipboard sharing to function through Wayland, preserving the expected behavior of many X11 programs.

XWayland originated from the need to support X apps during the early development of Wayland. It has been maintained as part of the X.Org/X server ecosystem and is shipped with major Linux distributions that provide Wayland sessions. Over time, it has gained broader support for common X extensions, with ongoing improvements by the X.Org Foundation and the Wayland community.

Supported features include core X11 protocol support and commonly used extensions such as XShm, XInput2, and RANDR; however some niche extensions or advanced X features may not be fully implemented. Performance is generally sufficient for everyday work, but XWayland introduces some overhead compared with native Wayland clients, and certain visual glitches or input quirks can occur with older software.

XWayland remains a key component for transitional environments where users rely on legacy X11 programs. While Wayland adoption continues and some projects aim to replace X11 entirely, XWayland is expected to be maintained for the foreseeable future to preserve compatibility across a wide range of applications.