Bug#1131155: hw-detect: detect_desktop: Please improve detection of wayland desktops

[Arnaud Rebillout]

On 18/03/2026 18:57, Cyril Brulebois wrote:
> … and that looks good to me, even if having a library might be another
> source of trickiness down the road (no ABI bump yet, but that's
> something that could change).

Yep it's not perfect, I also thought about the ABI bump that will come
sooner or later.

There are also binary packages from src:mesa, they are a good indication
of a desktop installation, but again it's libraries with the ABI in the
package name...

Anyway, thanks for the quick upload!

Best,

Arnaud

Processed: Re: Bug#1131155: hw-detect: detect_desktop: Please improve detection of wayland desktops

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Processing control commands:

> tag -1 patch pending
Bug #1131155 [src:hw-detect] hw-detect: detect_desktop: Please improve 
detection of wayland desktops
Added tag(s) patch.

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1131155: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1131155
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Bug#1131155: hw-detect: detect_desktop: Please improve detection of wayland desktops

[Cyril Brulebois]

Control: tag -1 patch pending

Hi Arnaud,

Arnaud Rebillout  (2026-03-18):
> the file `hw-detect.finish-install.d/08hw-detect` contains the function
> `detect_desktop`, which guesses whether the system being installed is a
> desktop.
> 
> The guess is simple: it's a desktop if either task-desktop or
> xserver-xorg-core is installed. Note that some Debian derivatives (like
> Kali Linux) don't install task-desktop, so it's important to also check
> another package like xserver-xorg-core.
> 
> It used to work well, however xorg is being slowly phased out, and
> lately the Kali GNOME installations doesn't have xserver-xorg-core
> installed. Maybe it's due to gdm3 that dropped its "Recommends:
> xserver-xorg" in version 49.2-3.
> 
> So we need a better fallback to detect a Wayland desktop in case
> task-desktop is not installed. It seems that libwayland-server0 is a
> good candidate for that, it's a dependency of libkwin6, libmutter-18-0,
> sway, libwlroot-0.19, phoc, and more.

Yeah, the situation is trickier with Wayland…

> A merge request is available at:
> https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/hw-detect/-/merge_requests/17

… and that looks good to me, even if having a library might be another
source of trickiness down the road (no ABI bump yet, but that's
something that could change).

Merged and uploaded, thanks!


Cheers,
-- 
Cyril Brulebois (k...@debian.org)
D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant


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Bug#1131155: hw-detect: detect_desktop: Please improve detection of wayland desktops

[Arnaud Rebillout]

Source: hw-detect
Version: 1.173
Severity: normal
User: de...@kali.org
Usertags: origin-kali

Dear Maintainer,

the file `hw-detect.finish-install.d/08hw-detect` contains the function
`detect_desktop`, which guesses whether the system being installed is a
desktop.

The guess is simple: it's a desktop if either task-desktop or
xserver-xorg-core is installed. Note that some Debian derivatives (like
Kali Linux) don't install task-desktop, so it's important to also check
another package like xserver-xorg-core.

It used to work well, however xorg is being slowly phased out, and
lately the Kali GNOME installations doesn't have xserver-xorg-core
installed. Maybe it's due to gdm3 that dropped its "Recommends:
xserver-xorg" in version 49.2-3.

So we need a better fallback to detect a Wayland desktop in case
task-desktop is not installed. It seems that libwayland-server0 is a
good candidate for that, it's a dependency of libkwin6, libmutter-18-0,
sway, libwlroot-0.19, phoc, and more.

A merge request is available at:
https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/hw-detect/-/merge_requests/17

Thanks,

Arnaud