As we approach mid-November, the LXQt team is gearing up to release LXQt 2.1, and there’s plenty to be excited about. This upcoming version introduces an experimental Wayland session and brings other improvements that enhance the overall user experience.
One of the most significant additions in LXQt 2.1 is the experimental support for Wayland sessions. A new package, “lxqt-wayland-session,” will be available for installation.
In line with LXQt’s modular philosophyโ”don’t bother users with unwanted or unused things”โusers who prefer to stick with X11 won’t notice any changes unless they install this package.
Upon installing “lxqt-wayland-session,” the “Session Settings” will present new options tailored for Wayland.
However, because Wayland differs considerably from X11, some features are unavailable, and the compositor, rather than LXQt, now manages certain settings. Consequently, you might encounter messages indicating unsupported settings.
On top of that, LXQt users will be able to choose from a variety of Wayland compositors. Any wlroots-compatible compositor should work seamlessly alongside kwin_wayland. Out of the box, LXQt 2.1 will support:
- Hyprland
- Labwc
- KWin
- Niri
- Sway
- River
- Wayfire
Each of these comes with a basic configuration file to get you started. Additionally, support for various screen lockers such as swaylock, waylock, and hyprlock is included, ensuring your system remains secure under Wayland.
It’s important also to note that not all applications are Wayland-ready. Programs like redshift , and certain clipboard managers may not function under Wayland. To mitigate this, LXQt 2.1 will allow their autostart settings to be limited to X11 sessions only.
Conversely, Wayland-exclusive applications such as kanshi or xdg-desktop-portal-wlr can be initiated by any compositor, enhancing the flexibility of your setup.
Moreover, general fixes and workarounds have been implemented to improve Wayland’s compatibility. For instance, PCManFM-Qt’s desktop window now offers better support for multi-monitor configurations under Wayland.
Beyond Wayland support, LXQt 2.1 will introduce several styling enhancements:
- Dynamic Palette Colors: When you change the theme, corresponding palette colors are now automatically applied across the system.
- Customizable Tooltip Colors: Tooltip colors on the desktop and elsewhere can now be styled using palettes.
- Configurable Toolbar Icons: You can adjust the icon sizes in toolbars to suit your preferences.
- Stable Taskbar Buttons: Taskbar buttons no longer shift position when opening or closing windows, providing a more consistent experience.
- QTerminal Enhancements: Improved text and added icons for “Split Terminal” menu items to enhance usability.
- Readable Clock Fonts: Fixed an issue causing unreadable fonts in the clock when using “KDE-Plasma” and “Leech” themes.
- Enhanced Configuration Center: Tooltips in the Configuration Center are now more informative and standardized, complete with styled appearances.
In addition to the above, several other enhancements have been made:
- Improved Search Functionality: The Fancy Menu search now supports executable names.
- Enhanced “Do Not Disturb” Mode: You can activate “Do Not Disturb” directly from the notification tray icon.
- World Clock Note: A helpful note in the world clock settings reminds you that middle-clicking the clock allows you to view different time zones.
- Remote Thumbnails Setting Fixed: The “Show remote thumbnails” option in PCManFM-Qt now works correctly.
- QTerminal Tweaks: The dropdown and settings in QTerminal have been refined for a better user experience.
- Updated Bookmarks: Bookmarks have been migrated to a new location to improve organization.
- Context Menu Cleanup: The unusable “Invert Selection” option has been removed from the folder context menu.
- Desktop Shortcuts: You can now use the shortcut “Ctrl+Shift+A” to invert selections on the desktop.
- Dialog Improvements: Labels in file properties dialogs are no longer truncated.
- Audio Control Fixes: Corrected the limits of the offset spin-box in pavucontrol-qt.
- Monitor Settings Memory: The monitor settings dialog now remembers its previous window size, saving you time during adjustments.
Although the official release is slated for mid-November, LXQt 2.1 is currently available for testing. You can install it from sources or, preferably, create distro-specific packages (like AUR packages for Arch Linux) and install them.
Refer to the announcement for more information about all the changes the upcoming LXQt 2.1 desktop environment will bring.
Image credits: LXQt Project
