Installing Compton
Compton can be installed using your distribution’s package manager. For Debian/Ubuntu-based systems, run:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install compton
For Arch-based systems (e.g., Manjaro), use:
sudo pacman -S compton
This installs the latest version of Compton compatible with your system.
Configuring Compton for Wayland
Compton’s configuration file is typically located at ~/.config/compton.conf (create it if it doesn’t exist). To enable Wayland support, add or modify the following key:
backend = "wayland";
Additional optimizations (optional but recommended) include enabling shadows (with exclusions for performance) and transparency:
shadow = true;
shadow-exclude = ["WINDOW_CLASS=.*Firefox", "WINDOW_CLASS=.*Chrome"]; # Exclude resource-heavy apps
glx-no-stencil = true; # Improves performance
alpha-threshold = 0.05; # Sets transparency threshold
Save the file after editing.
Switching to a Wayland Session
Most Linux distributions allow you to choose between X11 and Wayland at login. On the login screen, click the gear icon (or equivalent) next to your username and select a Wayland session (e.g., “GNOME on Wayland” or “KDE Plasma on Wayland”). This ensures Compton runs under the Wayland display server.
Starting Compton Automatically
To start Compton when your system boots, create a Systemd service file:
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/compton.service
Add the following content (replace your_username with your actual username):
[Unit]
Description=Compton Window Compositor
After=display-manager.service
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/compton --config ~/.config/compton.conf
Restart=always
User=your_username
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Save the file, then enable and start the service:
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable compton
sudo systemctl start compton
You can verify Compton is running with:
systemctl status compton
Alternatively, add Compton to your desktop environment’s autostart (e.g., GNOME: ~/.config/autostart/compton.desktop).
Troubleshooting Compatibility Issues
Some Wayland applications (notably input method frameworks like Fcitx5) may not work seamlessly with Compton. To resolve this:
shadow-exclude in compton.conf (e.g., WINDOW_CLASS=.*Fcitx).GTK_USE_PORTAL=1 (e.g., GTK_USE_PORTAL=1 firefox) to force it into XWayland mode, which Compton handles better.