[ale] Weird window-manager shenanigans on debian 12...

[Steve Litt]

On Thu, 18 Sep 2025 22:39:01 -0400
William Wylde via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> Yeah, I think I've figured out what happened.  Something "updated"
> and set wayland as the default graphical UI system.  LXQT is broken
> under wayland. Nothing seems to work under Xorg anymore.
> 
> I just installed KDE.  I'm tired of messing with it.  And it imported
> my LXQT desktop settings with no problem... so wayland it is, I guess.
> dag-nabbit.

If Debian insists on forcing you into Wayland, then rather than giving
up a great Desktop Environment (DE) like LXQt, why not give Debian the
heave-ho?

The Wayland specification might be great, and Wayland checks all the
right boxes for getting rid of X11's flaws, but the fact is that with
Wayland your choice of window managers (compositors to use the correct
word) is horribly limited, and for good reason. All an X11 window
manager has to do is interface between the user and X11, whereas each
and every Wayland compositor has to reproduce a lot of the
functionality formerly done by X11. When you have to fight your distro,
it's time to step up to a less authoritarian distro. And:

https://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/diy/images/hidty.png

I use Void Linux, where there's absolutely no talk of getting rid of
X11. I'll bet Gentoo also has full support of X11. I'll bet that Devuan
will put the default back to X11, counteracting yet another Debian
uberhubris.

Back in 2013 I removed every KDE program and library from my computer,
and never let them come back. KDE had a way of slowing down fast
computers, and bringing average computers to their knees. I've heard
it's not as bad now, but anyone who likes LXQt probably doesn't want
the, um, heft of KDE. If I were in your shoes, I'd switch distros.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
Featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques