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Comment by QuaternionsBhop | Hacker News Reader

I've always thought this was a cool idea. It's obviously been on the minds of Wayland protocol developers since the beginning, otherwise it wouldn't be possible!

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I thought it was the other way around, X11 has supported multiple cursor since 2009 and Wayland didn't add support for it since toolkit developers weren't making use of it anyway.

Enabling in X works via:

    xinput list  # find second mouse id
    xinput create-master second
    xinput reattach <mouse-id> "second pointer"

and to get rid of it:

    xinput reattach <mouse-id> 'Virtual core pointer'
    xinput remove-master 'second pointer'

Works great for clicking, but keyboard doesn't work in some applications when enabled. Dragging windows might attach them to the wrong cursor and other issues. Playing around with xinput can also crash some apps (libgdk-3 here) or leave you in a state without a keyboard or mouse.

Wayland: you can have two cursors but no, you can’t have screen sharing.

Which desktop are you running where you can't figure out how to take a screenshot? Maybe some of the more tech-savvy folks here at HN can help you figure it out.

Yes. Show me how to make zoom screen sharing work without pipewire and prayer.

Since you edited your post I'll rephrase my question: Which desktop are you running where you can't figure out how to share your screen? Maybe some of the more tech-savvy folks here at HN can help you figure it out.

KDE plasma. go wild.

Here's a post from 2023 where the majority of people say it just works, except for one guy who tweaked his env and broke it. https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/18gfffw/is_zoom_still_...

The fact you're griping about implementation details like pipewire makes me think you also tried micromanaging your env and broke something. If you use a fresh install and leave everything default, I'm sure it would work for you like it does for everyone else. I use KDE too btw.

> micromanaging your env

All the "micromanaging" you need to do to not have screensharing is one of the following; 1. Don't have a started dbus session 2. Don't have portals installed and setup 3. Don't have pipewire installed and setup

Meanwhile on X what you need is: 1. Have X

So no, it wouldn't work, the reason why it works for those people in the Reddit post is because they use distros and sessions that do all the things I listed that make screensharing not work if any one is not done.

PS: Wayland does have testing protocols for screenshots and screenrecording like 'wlr-screencopy' and some DMA buff one I forgot the name of. But for screen sharing there's nothing that Wayland implements itself afaik.

Without dbus, X would also have plenty of its features fall flat, it's the de facto IPC mechanism of Linux desktop for better or worse, so it's like "my car won't start if I don't have any fuel" complaint.

Are you using a distro that is missing some of those core OS services? If so, which distro does this not work out of the box in 2023? (let alone 2026?)

Or, did you remove some core OS services, and now you're complaining when various things started to break?

>micromanaging your env

PERSONAL Computer

That means you're free to use or break it however you want and nobody will stop you. If you put a nail through your water pipes, you'll also flood your PERSONAL house, but the end result is still nobody's fault but your own.

Sure, but if one wants to play tester, don't complain when you eventually find a bug.

Is there a reason you don't want to use pipewire?

screen sharing is not a static screencap that you would need to email or something

He edited his post to say something different. Nonetheless I'm leaving my original comment as is.

Screen sharing has been fine out of the box on every Wayland desktop I've used.

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