Cannot use GUI apps/tools as Wayland socket doesn't exist in `XDG_RUNTIME_DIR` #11261

mangkoran · 2024-03-07T03:18:40Z

Windows Version

10.0.19044.4046

WSL Version

2.0.14.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

WSL 2
WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.15.133.1-1

Distro Version

Arch

Other Software

wl-clipboard 2.2.1 (shouldn't be the root cause)
systemd 255.4-2

Repro Steps

Install wl-clipboard -> sudo pacman -S wl-clipboard
Run echo "foobar" | wl-copy

Expected Behavior

foobar is copied to Windows clipboard through Wayland

Actual Behavior

❯ echo "foobar" | wl-copy
Failed to connect to a Wayland server: No such file or directory
Note: WAYLAND_DISPLAY is set to wayland-0
Note: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is set to /run/user/1000/
Please check whether /run/user/1000//wayland-0 socket exists and is accessible.

Diagnostic Logs

Not applicable

Additional Note

I couldn't open any GUI apps and any Wayland-related tools such as wl-copy.

❯ echo "foobar" | wl-copy
Failed to connect to a Wayland server: No such file or directory
Note: WAYLAND_DISPLAY is set to wayland-0
Note: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is set to /run/user/1000/
Please check whether /run/user/1000//wayland-0 socket exists and is accessible.

The following are the content of /run/user/1000/

❯ ls -la /run/user/1000/
total 0
drwx------ 7 mangkoran mangkoran 220 Mar  7 08:38 ./
drwxr-xr-x 3 root      root       60 Mar  7 08:34 ../
srw-rw-rw- 1 mangkoran mangkoran   0 Mar  7 08:34 bus=
prw------- 1 mangkoran mangkoran   0 Mar  7 08:34 fish_universal_variables.notifier|
drwx------ 2 mangkoran mangkoran  60 Mar  7 08:34 gcr/
drwx------ 2 mangkoran mangkoran 160 Mar  7 08:34 gnupg/
drwxr-xr-x 2 mangkoran mangkoran  60 Mar  7 08:34 p11-kit/
srw-rw-rw- 1 mangkoran mangkoran   0 Mar  7 08:34 pipewire-0=
srw-rw-rw- 1 mangkoran mangkoran   0 Mar  7 08:34 pipewire-0-manager=
drwxr-xr-x 2 mangkoran mangkoran  60 Mar  7 08:34 pulse/
drwxr-xr-x 6 mangkoran mangkoran 160 Mar  7 08:34 systemd/

Based on that it seems wayland-0 socket is missing in XDG_RUNTIME_DIR. Hmm pretty weird I think as I don't disable guiApplications in .wslconfig.

Then I found microsoft/wslg#1187. I proceed to check /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/.

❯ ls -la /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/
total 0
drwx------ 4 mangkoran mangkoran 120 Mar  7 09:24 ./
drwxrwxrwt 8 root      root      320 Mar  7 08:34 ../
drwx------ 3 mangkoran mangkoran  60 Mar  7 08:34 dbus-1/
drwx------ 2 mangkoran mangkoran  80 Mar  7 08:34 pulse/
srwxrwxrwx 1 mangkoran mangkoran   0 Mar  7 08:34 wayland-0=
-rw-rw---- 1 mangkoran mangkoran   0 Mar  7 08:34 wayland-0.lock

And yep there it is. So Wayland socket is currently not in XDG_RUNTIME_DIR. It seems the Wayland socket was previously symlinked in XDG_RUNTIME_DIR as in #10205. Then I tried to link the Wayland socket.

~
❯ ln -s /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/wayland-0* /run/user/1000/

~
❯ echo "foobar" | wl-copy

~
❯ echo $status
0

Although it works as intended, I think this isn't the default behavior/a regression.

Workaround

As a workaround, I created a simple systemd user oneshot service/unit.

❯ cat ~/.config/systemd/user/symlink-wayland-socket.service
[Unit]
Description=Symlink Wayland socket to XDG_RUNTIME_DIR

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ln -s /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/wayland-0      $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ln -s /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/wayland-0.lock $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Enable it using the following command.

systemctl --user enable symlink-wayland-socket.service

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

dixonwille · 2024-03-14T00:35:04Z

Can confirm with:

Versions

WSL version: 2.1.5.0
Kernel version: 5.15.146.1-2
WSLg version: 1.0.60
MSRDC version: 1.2.5105
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows version: 10.0.22631.3155

NAME="Fedora Linux"
VERSION="39 (Container Image)"
ID=fedora
VERSION_ID=39
VERSION_CODENAME=""
PLATFORM_ID="platform:f39"

Workaround

Exactly what @mangkoran mentioned by creating a oneshot systemd service.

stefan-oskamp · 2024-03-18T19:42:21Z

Many thanks, @mangkoran, for the details and the service script. Had the same issue with WSL 2.1.5 and Fedora 39 and the workaround fixed it.

xuangeyouneihan · 2024-03-21T10:43:09Z

Here is another workaround according to this post. Create /etc/systemd/system/user-runtime-dir@.service.d/override.conf and add:

[Service]
ExecStart = sh -c "ln -fs /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/* /run/user/"%i

This will link everything in /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir to /run/user/$UID. The reason why I don't mount /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir at /run/user/$UID like what the original post does is that it will cause user@UID.service's failure due to /run/user/$UID's incorrect owner

king-11 · 2024-04-06T08:27:10Z

sorry for asking this novice question but @mangkoran how do we enable this service. Thanks for the help

mangkoran · 2024-04-06T08:47:45Z

@king-11 It should be the following.

systemctl --user enable symlink-wayland-socket.service

I will add this to my top post.

PS: A quick Google search should help you faster 😉

gergelypolonkai · 2024-05-14T09:48:28Z

Although this issue is about Wayland, for anyone who found this becaus X apps don’t work either (like me), if you want to use X11 apps, too, you will also have to symlink /mnt/wslg/.X11-unix/X0 to /tmp/.X11-unix/X0.

arf1372 · 2024-06-08T20:59:19Z

For me, X11 apps work but Wayland doesn't.

WSL info:

> wsl --version
WSL version: 2.1.5.0
Kernel version: 5.15.146.1-2
WSLg version: 1.0.60
MSRDC version: 1.2.5105
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows version: 10.0.22631.3593

Ubuntu info:

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Release:        24.04
Codename:       noble
$ uname -a
Linux *** 5.15.146.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2 #1 SMP Thu Jan 11 04:09:03 UTC 2024 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

and systemd is enabled.

tried:

$ echo "hello" | wl-copy
Failed to connect to a Wayland server: No such file or directory
Note: WAYLAND_DISPLAY is set to wayland-0
Note: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is set to /run/user/1000/
Please check whether /run/user/1000//wayland-0 socket exists and is accessible.

As I fear the provided workaround may break my system(?) I didn't test it.

mangkoran · 2024-06-08T23:36:18Z

@arf1372 You could try the symlink command first (not the systemd service) and see if solves the issue on your machine.

ln -s /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/wayland-0* /run/user/1000/

This command is harmless as it just symlinks and not removing any files. If anything goes wrong, you could restart WSL and everything will be reverted.

Kunal-Singh-Dadhwal · 2024-07-03T15:21:22Z

For me, X11 apps work but Wayland doesn't.

WSL info:

> wsl --version
WSL version: 2.1.5.0
Kernel version: 5.15.146.1-2
WSLg version: 1.0.60
MSRDC version: 1.2.5105
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows version: 10.0.22631.3593

Ubuntu info:

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
Release:        24.04
Codename:       noble
$ uname -a
Linux *** 5.15.146.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2 #1 SMP Thu Jan 11 04:09:03 UTC 2024 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

and systemd is enabled.

tried:

$ echo "hello" | wl-copy
Failed to connect to a Wayland server: No such file or directory
Note: WAYLAND_DISPLAY is set to wayland-0
Note: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is set to /run/user/1000/
Please check whether /run/user/1000//wayland-0 socket exists and is accessible.

As I fear the provided workaround may break my system(?) I didn't test it.

Hey @arf1372 , could you tell how you configured X11?

tusharsnx · 2024-07-15T09:31:22Z

Ubuntu-24.04 set these files differently than Ubuntu-22.04:

I don't think I ever faced this issue on Ubuntu 22.04. On 24.04, I can't even run ls on /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/ without sudo, whereas 22.04 doesn't require it all.

noopole · 2024-07-17T14:18:03Z

I don't think I ever faced this issue on Ubuntu 22.04. On 24.04, I can't even run ls on /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/ without sudo, whereas 22.04 doesn't require it all.

To make it work under Ubuntu 24.04 I had to set rx permissions or change owner on runtime-dir, then I could create the simlink.

sudo chmod +rx /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir (or) chown 1002:1002 /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir
ln -s /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/wayland-0* /run/user/1002/

(where 1002 is the current user.)

alonbl · 2024-08-23T18:05:01Z

WSLg bug: microsoft/wslg#1244

feoh · 2024-09-06T20:37:48Z

So, this may not be a satisfying work-around for everyone, but this poblem was bowing up my Neovim session, because WAYLAND_DISPLAY was set, causing Neovim to assume that wl-copy was in play and working properly.

I added this awful bodge to my .zshrc that may help someone so I am including it here. If WSL is detected, we unset WAYLAND_DISPLAY but also add a 'wway' alias to put it back if we actually WANT to run a GUI app :)

# Under WSL, we KINDA have Wayland, but not really, and that blows up Neovim. Ungh. :)
# Add an alias so if we actually WANT the pseudo wayland, we can haz.

if [[ $(uname -r | grep "microsoft") ]] then
        unset WAYLAND_DISPLAY
        alias wway='export WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0'
fi

Yay! My neovim works again :)

vanderzielj · 2024-09-17T15:46:28Z

Thank you @mangkoran

This is an issue for me on Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS running on WSL2

WSL version: 2.2.4.0
Kernel version: 5.15.153.1-2
WSLg version: 1.0.61
MSRDC version: 1.2.5326
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.26091.1-240325-1447.ge-release
Windows version: 10.0.22631.4037

shpankau · 2024-09-30T00:53:55Z

So, this was also blowing up my copying while using Neovim (nvim) after my X410 trial ended:

$ echo abc | /usr/bin/wl-copy.orig
Failed to connect to a Wayland server: No such file or directory
Note: WAYLAND_DISPLAY is set to wayland-0
Note: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is set to /run/user/1000/
Please check whether /run/user/1000//wayland-0 socket exists and is accessible.

My issue was not pasting into WSL, but copying from WSL and pasting into Windows, especially from nvim.

Unless you have disabled it, you should be able to run Windows binaries from within WSL 2. The workaround for clipboard access I have implemented is to wrapper Microsoft's bundled c:\Windows\system32\clip.exe binary in a script to copy:

#!/bin/bash
# the pbcopy script

tee <&0 | clip.exe
exit 0

For pasting, I opted to wrapper PowerShell and strip the extraneous appended carriage return or null:

#!/bin/bash
# the pbpaste script

powershell.exe Get-Clipboard | sed 's/\r$//' | sed -z '$ s/\n$//'
exit 0

Put these scripts in /usr/bin as /usr/bin/pbcopy and /usr/bin/pbpaste. Then rename wl-copy and wl-paste and symlink the pb scripts:

$ sudo mv /usr/bin/wl-copy{,.orig}
$ sudo mv /usr/bin/wl-paste{,.orig}
$ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/pbcopy /usr/bin/wl-copy
$ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/pbpaste /usr/bin/wl-paste

If you want to test this in nvim, go into visual mode, select some text, and press <Ctrl-R>"+y to yank the selection to the system clipboard. Then try pasting it in a Windows app.

Yes, you could just name the scripts wl-copy and wl-paste, but I use symlinks to avoid confusing myself six months from now.

The other benefit of symlinking is being able to use the pbcopy and pbpaste commands like I would in macOS. 😄

NOTE: This approach assumes you only want to copy/paste text. Unlike wl-copy/paste the MIME type is stripped/ignored.

mangkoran changed the title ~~Cannot use GUI apps/tools as Wayland socket is in /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir instead of XDG_RUNTIME_DIR~~ Cannot use GUI apps/tools as Wayland socket not exist in XDG_RUNTIME_DIR Mar 7, 2024

mangkoran changed the title ~~Cannot use GUI apps/tools as Wayland socket not exist in XDG_RUNTIME_DIR~~ Cannot use GUI apps/tools as Wayland socket doesn't exist in XDG_RUNTIME_DIR Mar 7, 2024

king-11 mentioned this issue Apr 6, 2024

Fedora WSL king-11/dotrc#3

Closed

vorporeal mentioned this issue May 9, 2024

Support Warp for Linux on WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) warpdotdev/Warp#4240

Open

naveenkumarg-oss pushed a commit to naveenkumarg-oss/dotfiles that referenced this issue May 22, 2024

fix: microsoft/WSL#11261

19a5641

naveenkumarg-oss pushed a commit to naveenkumarg-oss/dotfiles that referenced this issue May 22, 2024

revert: microsoft/WSL#11261

238fd09

alonbl mentioned this issue Aug 23, 2024

Ubuntu 24.04 Wayland falling back to X11 microsoft/wslg#1244

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Cannot use GUI apps/tools as Wayland socket doesn't exist in `XDG_RUNTIME_DIR` #11261

Cannot use GUI apps/tools as Wayland socket doesn't exist in `XDG_RUNTIME_DIR` #11261

mangkoran commented Mar 7, 2024 •

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dixonwille commented Mar 14, 2024

stefan-oskamp commented Mar 18, 2024

xuangeyouneihan commented Mar 21, 2024 •

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king-11 commented Apr 6, 2024

mangkoran commented Apr 6, 2024 •

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gergelypolonkai commented May 14, 2024

arf1372 commented Jun 8, 2024 •

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mangkoran commented Jun 8, 2024

Kunal-Singh-Dadhwal commented Jul 3, 2024 •

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tusharsnx commented Jul 15, 2024

noopole commented Jul 17, 2024 •

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alonbl commented Aug 23, 2024

feoh commented Sep 6, 2024

vanderzielj commented Sep 17, 2024

shpankau commented Sep 30, 2024 •

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Cannot use GUI apps/tools as Wayland socket doesn't exist in XDG_RUNTIME_DIR #11261

Cannot use GUI apps/tools as Wayland socket doesn't exist in XDG_RUNTIME_DIR #11261

Comments

mangkoran commented Mar 7, 2024 • edited Loading

Windows Version

WSL Version

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

Kernel Version

Distro Version

Other Software

Repro Steps

Expected Behavior

Actual Behavior

Diagnostic Logs

Additional Note

Workaround

dixonwille commented Mar 14, 2024

Versions

Workaround

stefan-oskamp commented Mar 18, 2024

xuangeyouneihan commented Mar 21, 2024 • edited Loading

king-11 commented Apr 6, 2024

mangkoran commented Apr 6, 2024 • edited Loading

gergelypolonkai commented May 14, 2024

arf1372 commented Jun 8, 2024 • edited Loading

mangkoran commented Jun 8, 2024

Kunal-Singh-Dadhwal commented Jul 3, 2024 • edited Loading

tusharsnx commented Jul 15, 2024

noopole commented Jul 17, 2024 • edited Loading

alonbl commented Aug 23, 2024

feoh commented Sep 6, 2024

vanderzielj commented Sep 17, 2024

shpankau commented Sep 30, 2024 • edited Loading

Cannot use GUI apps/tools as Wayland socket doesn't exist in `XDG_RUNTIME_DIR` #11261

Cannot use GUI apps/tools as Wayland socket doesn't exist in `XDG_RUNTIME_DIR` #11261

mangkoran commented Mar 7, 2024 •

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xuangeyouneihan commented Mar 21, 2024 •

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mangkoran commented Apr 6, 2024 •

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arf1372 commented Jun 8, 2024 •

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Kunal-Singh-Dadhwal commented Jul 3, 2024 •

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noopole commented Jul 17, 2024 •

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shpankau commented Sep 30, 2024 •

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