Fleet Desktop to support Wayland display server (Ubuntu's default)

[lucasmrod]

Goal

User story
As an end user on an Ubuntu Linux workstations,
I want Fleet Desktop to support the Wayland display server
so that I can install self-service software and see resolution steps for failing policies w/o having to update my display server to the non-default X11.

Context

• Requestor(s): @lucasmrod
• Product designer: @noahtalerman

Fleet Desktop currently supports X11 as display server. Starting Ubuntu 22.04, Wayland is the default display server.

Fleet Desktop currently supports X11 as display server. Starting Ubuntu 22.04, Wayland is the default display server, thus Fleet Desktop should support it.

This is from my (Lucas) local tests with two Ubuntu VMs:

• Ubuntu 22.04.2
  • Wayland
    • Works with chrome ✅
    • Doesn't work with Firefox. ❌
  • Xorg
    • Works with Chrome. ✅
    • Works with Firefox. ✅
• Ubuntu 24.04
  • Wayland
    • Doesn't work with Chrome. ❌
    • Doesn't work with Firefox. ❌
  • Xorg (when using Xorg it defaults to DISPLAY=:1, and with the changes in this PR it works):
    • Works with Chrome. ✅
    • Works with Firefox. ✅

Changes

Product

• [ ] Fleet's agent (fleetd) changes: Update Fleet Desktop to support Wayland.
• [ ] Outdated documentation changes: Remove this call out from the "Supported host operating systems" doc page here:

Engineering

• [ ] Database schema migrations: TODO
• [ ] Load testing: TODO

ℹ️  Please read this issue carefully and understand it. Pay special attention to UI wireframes, especially "dev notes".

QA

Risk assessment

• Requires load testing: TODO
• Risk level: Low / High TODO
• Risk description: TODO

Manual testing steps

1. Step 1
2. Step 2
3. Step 3

Testing notes

Confirmation

1. [ ] Engineer (@____): Added comment to user story confirming successful completion of QA.
2. [ ] QA (@____): Added comment to user story confirming successful completion of QA.

[noahtalerman]

@lucasmrod thanks for tracking this!

What do you think the level of effort is for this one? 3 points? 5?

The plan is to weigh this at the next feature fest.

[lucasmrod]

I would say 5 points. I was able to make Ubuntu 22.04 with Wayland work by setting WAYLAND_DISPLAY to the same value as DISPLAY. But it still doesn't work on Ubuntu 24.04, so it needs a bit more digging/troubleshooting.

[lucasmrod]

Some more data points from a user:

• https://github.com/fleetdm/fleet/issues/18925#issuecomment-2110978626
• https://github.com/fleetdm/fleet/issues/18925#issuecomment-2113364909

[noahtalerman]

Hey @sharon-fdm heads up, I moved this story to "Settled." I think it's ready for estimation.

@lucasmrod please feel free to add more specs to the issue if you think we need more to help w/ estimation + development.

Thanks!

[bash-bandicoot]

Fedora 41 will ship without X11 at all (the user can install it afterward, but still): https://www.phoronix.com/news/Fedora-41-No-GNOME-Xorg-Install

Nvidia driver on latest Fedora already defaults to Wayland, Ubuntu > 24.10 + NVIDIA will default to Wayland: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2024/05/ubuntu-24-10-wayland-nvidia

Linux Desktop ecosystem moves to Wayland so you better get ready asap :)