Wayland display server

ManicTime can be installed on Wayland.

While Wayland's enhanced privacy and security features may limit functionality, we have implemented specific support for KDE, GNOME and wlroots-based compositors to ensure compatibility.

Screenshot tracking

Screenshots are captured on Wayland through the desktop ScreenCast portal.

  • The first time a screenshot is needed, you'll be prompted to select a recording source.
  • Your choice is remembered, so the prompt won't reappear on every capture.
  • If you pick a "virtual" source, ManicTime will warn you and ask you to choose again.

Wayland screenshots only capture entire screen, not active application window. Meaning when you select a monitor, the screenshot will match the monitor's resolution and will not crop to the active application window.

Requirements

  • PipeWire (pipewiresrc) — present by default on most modern distros
  • GStreamer (gst-launch-1.0)
  • An xdg-desktop-portal backend that provides the ScreenCast portal, matching your compositor (e.g. xdg-desktop-portal-gnome, xdg-desktop-portal-wlr, ...)

Gnome desktop environment

ManicTime provides support for GNOME via Gnome extension. The extension allows ManicTime to track applications, window titles, and idle time.

Requirement

ManicTime Gnome Extension (if unable to install from browser, open Gnome Shell extension manager from store for your specific linux distribution and search for "ManicTime Gnome Extension")

KDE desktop environment

ManicTime fully supports desktop environments running under the KWin window manager/compositor out of the box, offering nearly the same level of detail as in X11 sessions. This includes tracking applications, window titles, away time, and capturing screenshots (including active window).

wlroots-based desktop environments (Hyprland, Sway)

Applications and idle should be tracked out of the box.

Other desktop environments

Submit request to support your favourite environment or

Switch display server from Wayland to Xorg (X11)

Following instructions applies for Linux Ubuntu 22.04. Your experience may differ depending on your distribution, version and installed software.

Changing display server via Login Screen.

  • Log out from the system. Press CTRL + ALT + DELETE button and press Log Out.
  • On the Login, screen click on your username. When username is selected, find the "gear" icon in the lower right corner. Click on the "gear" icon and select "Ubuntu on Xorg". Type your password and hit Enter to login.
  • Open Terminal and run echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE command to confirm that X11 display server is running.

Changing display server via Terminal

  • While the user is logged in to the system, open file /etc/gdm3/custom.conf as super user (sudo) in your favorite text editor.
  • Find the line with "WaylandEnable=false" and uncomment the line, then save the changes.
  • Next, we need these changes to take effect therefore we must restart the gdm3 service. While in the Terminal run the following command: sudo systemctl restart gdm3.
  • When the restart is complete, login to the system
  • Open Terminal and run echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE command to confirm that X11 display server is running.