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Screen sharing on Hyprland (Arch Linux)

Screen sharing on Hyprland (Arch Linux)

Table of contents

Introduction

This guide will go through the setup and troubleshooting steps required to get screen sharing working on OBS with the Hyprland compositor.

This guide will use the yay AUR helper for AUR package installation, but the commands should be similar for other helpers such as paru.

WARNING: This guide demands that the user has a basic understanding on installing packages (both official and AUR), using git, compiling from source, and some patience.

Install PipeWire and friends

First, we need to install pipewire and wireplumber. To do that, run the following command:

sudo pacman -S pipewire wireplumber

Install xdg-desktop-portal and friends

Option #1: xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland (recommended)

We will install the xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland-git package from the AUR, which provides additional functionality such as window sharing. With an AUR helper such as yay, you can install it this way:

yay -S xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland-git

Option #2: xdg-desktop-portal-wlr (not recommended)

This option provides less options than xdg-desktop-portal-wlr, but it will still allow fullscreen sharing. Install it running the following command:

sudo pacman -S xdg-desktop-portal-wlr

WARNING: The rest of this guide will assume xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland was choosed. If you picked this option, replace any -hyprland mentions for -wlr in the rest of this guide.

Remove other portal implementations

Make sure you don't have any other xdg-desktop-portal-* packages installed (except possibly xdg-desktop-portal-gtk for file dialogs), as this could cause problems later. To check if you have any, run the following command:

pacman -Q | grep xdg-desktop-portal-

then delete all of the listed packages except the -hyprland one we just installed and the -gtk one if you so chose.

Also make sure to install the optional dependencies grim and slurp:

sudo pacman -S grim slurp

Editing the configuration file

Open your Hyprland config file (usually located at ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf) with a text editor, and add the following line at the end:

exec-once=dbus-update-activation-environment --systemd WAYLAND_DISPLAY XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP

This will make sure that xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland can get the required variables on startup.

Restart your session

Now log out and then log back in, or reboot your system. Once you're back into Hyprland, try sharing in OBS with the "Screen Capture (PipeWire)" option.

If it works, congratulations! You may exit this guide now. If not, follow along:

Troubleshooting PipeWire

Make sure both pipewire and wireplumber are running. Run the following command:

systemctl --user status pipewire wireplumber

This should return "active (running)" for both. If it doesn't, follow the Arch Wiki article for troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting desktop portal

Run the following command to check for errors in xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland:

systemctl --user status xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland

This should return "active (running)". If it doesn't, check the errors it gives you. Here's some workarounds for common errors:

Portal service (wlroots implementation) was skipped because of a failed condition check

Make sure you added the required line to the Hyprland configuration. Check for typos.

unsupported wl_shm format 0x34324742 (after trying to share the screen on NVIDIA)

Install the modified hyprland-nvidia-git AUR package:

yay -S hyprland-nvidia-git

Alternatively, you can modify the source code manually:

We'll need to modify the wlroots submodule source code to make it choose a viable format.

First, clone the Hyprland repo if you haven't already:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/vaxerski/Hyprland

Then, install all required dependencies for building, as specified in the wiki:

sudo pacman -S gdb ninja gcc cmake libxcb xcb-proto xcb-util xcb-util-keysyms libxfixes libx11 libxcomposite xorg-xinput libxrender pixman wayland-protocols cairo pango --needed

Open the wlroots/types/output/render.c file, look for the wlr_output_preferred_read_format, and replace it with the following:

uint32_t wlr_output_preferred_read_format(struct wlr_output *output) {
    return DRM_FORMAT_XRGB8888;
}

Afterwards, compile and install by running sudo make install, then restart your session.

Troubleshooting OBS

You can try the wlrobs-hg plugin.

Troubleshooting your browser

If you're trying to share your screen in your browser, first make sure that it supports Wayland and screen sharing on it, else it will not work.

Firefox

Make sure you're running on Wayland. To do this, go to about:support, look for "Window Protocol", and make sure it is set to "wayland". If it isn't, set the environment variable MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 in an environment file, like /etc/environment, /etc/profile, ~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshenv, etc.

If it still doesn't work, open about:config and make sure the media.peerconnection.enabled flag is set to true.

Chromium

To run on Wayland, set the --ozone-platform-hint=auto flag in the chromium flags file (~/.config/chromium-flags.conf for the default package, ~/.config/chrome-flags.conf for Chrome).

Also ensure the "WebRTC PipeWire support" flag is enabled by opening chrome://flags/#enable-webrtc-pipewire-capturer and enabling it.

Troubleshooting your app

Make sure the app you're trying to share the screen with supports Wayland and sharing the screen with it.

Notable programs that still don't have full support for this are Discord and Zoom.

It still doesn't work!

Follow the official xdg-desktop-portal-wlr troubleshooting guide.

If it still doesn't work, consider opening an issue in the xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland repo.

References

@mmi333
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mmi333 commented Oct 4, 2023

@radholm @CRAG666

I had the same problem today and for me adding bitdepth,10 to the monitor rule in the hyprland config solved it.

monitor=,preferred,auto,auto,bitdepth,10

Not sure if it would work in your cases too, but thought it might help.

@barbiefan
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@radholm @CRAG666

I had the same problem today and for me adding bitdepth,10 to the monitor rule in the hyprland config solved it.

monitor=,preferred,auto,auto,bitdepth,10

YEP, same here
config is: hyprland-nvidia, pipewire, wireplumber, xdg-desktop-portal+xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland

Wasn't working in anything (firefox, brave, obs) and after setting bitdepth to 10 it started working in everything.
I've done some config changes that were in this doc and in docs linked at the bottom, but don't remember what steps exactly. But remember that from the start it seemed like everything is set up as it should be according to troubleshooting, but it wasn't working.

@julius-boettger
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@radholm @CRAG666

I had the same problem today and for me adding bitdepth,10 to the monitor rule in the hyprland config solved it.

monitor=,preferred,auto,auto,bitdepth,10

Not sure if it would work in your cases too, but thought it might help.

This also fixed it for me! Thanks :)

@JcBernack
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JcBernack commented Nov 12, 2023

@radholm @CRAG666

I had the same problem today and for me adding bitdepth,10 to the monitor rule in the hyprland config solved it.

monitor=,preferred,auto,auto,bitdepth,10

Not sure if it would work in your cases too, but thought it might help.

What the actual.. that's the last thing I would have expected to work. Thanks!

I did not install hyprland-nvidia-git, the only other thing I did was getting the hyprland portal:
xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland-git 1:r326.b2fc111-1

I have only one kind of funny issue remaining:
My left monitor is in portait mode, but the screen share does not reflect that. The content is rotated 90° so everyone needs to tilt their head.

@mamaraddio
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mamaraddio commented Nov 30, 2023

Do you know of a way to force wrl to be the default for the APIs it implements, and fallback to gtk/gnome for the rest?

You could take a look at man 5 portals.conf to get an example of exactly what you're asking. Set a default portal (gtk) but override specific interfaces with another portal implementation (wlr or even better hyprland)

@iuliandita
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Thanks for the guide!
With the latest aur package (xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland-git 1:r333.f5c3576-1), the xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland service does not start.

  systemctl --user status xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland
× xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland.service - Portal service (Hyprland implementation)
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland.service; static)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2023-12-19 15:01:56 CET; 4min 30s ago
    Process: 213421 ExecStart=/usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland (code=exited, status=127)
   Main PID: 213421 (code=exited, status=127)
        CPU: 1ms

Dec 19 15:01:56 machine systemd[1927]: xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Dec 19 15:01:56 machine systemd[1927]: xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Dec 19 15:01:56 machine systemd[1927]: xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 19 15:01:56 machine systemd[1927]: Failed to start Portal service (Hyprland implementation).
  journalctl --user -xeu xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland.service
Dec 19 08:16:27 machine systemd[1927]: Starting Portal service (Hyprland implementation)...
░░ Subject: A start job for unit UNIT has begun execution
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░
░░ A start job for unit UNIT has begun execution.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 172.
Dec 19 08:16:27 machine xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland[2214]: /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland: error while loading shared libraries: libsdbus-c++.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Dec 19 08:16:27 machine systemd[1927]: xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=127/n/a
░░ Subject: Unit process exited
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░
░░ An ExecStart= process belonging to unit UNIT has exited.
░░
░░ The process' exit code is 'exited' and its exit status is 127.
Dec 19 08:16:27 machine systemd[1927]: xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
░░ Subject: Unit failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░
░░ The unit UNIT has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 19 08:16:27 machine systemd[1927]: Failed to start Portal service (Hyprland implementation).
░░ Subject: A start job for unit UNIT has failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░
░░ A start job for unit UNIT has finished with a failure.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 172 and the job result is failed.
Dec 19 08:16:27 machine systemd[1927]: xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
░░ Subject: Automatic restarting of a unit has been scheduled
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░
░░ Automatic restarting of the unit UNIT has been scheduled, as the result for
░░ the configured Restart= setting for the unit.
Dec 19 08:16:27 machine systemd[1927]: Starting Portal service (Hyprland implementation)...
░░ Subject: A start job for unit UNIT has begun execution
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░
░░ A start job for unit UNIT has begun execution.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 216.
Dec 19 08:16:27 machine xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland[2229]: /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland: error while loading shared libraries: libsdbus-c++.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Dec 19 08:16:27 machine systemd[1927]: xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=127/n/a
░░ Subject: Unit process exited
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░
░░ An ExecStart= process belonging to unit UNIT has exited.
░░
░░ The process' exit code is 'exited' and its exit status is 127.

Here's a discussion that pointed me in the right direction. Installing the sdbus-cpp package fixed it for me.

  systemctl --user status xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland
● xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland.service - Portal service (Hyprland implementation)
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland.service; static)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2023-12-19 15:08:19 CET; 9s ago
   Main PID: 216317 (xdg-desktop-por)
      Tasks: 6 (limit: 18784)
     Memory: 14.4M (peak: 15.0M)
        CPU: 49ms
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland.service
             └─216317 /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland

Dec 19 15:08:19 machine systemd[1927]: Starting Portal service (Hyprland implementation)...
Dec 19 15:08:19 machine systemd[1927]: Started Portal service (Hyprland implementation).

@cpiber
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cpiber commented Feb 4, 2024

If anyone else has a similar problem that the systemd services etc are all running, check the output of /usr/libexec/xdg-desktop-portal --verbose. In particular, you should see something along the lines of:

XDP: loading /usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal/portals/hyprland.portal
...
XDP: Found 'hyprland' in configuration for default
XDP: Using hyprland.portal for org.freedesktop.impl.portal.ScreenCast (config)
XDP: providing portal org.freedesktop.portal.ScreenCast

If you do not see those, verify that the hyprland.portal file can be found. In particular, if you installed from source, it might be located in /usr/local/share/xdg-desktop-portal/portals/, which is not picked up, so you need to link it to the proper location: sudo ln -s /usr/local/share/xdg-desktop-portal/portals/hyprland.portal /usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal/portals/. After that the portal should be recognized and the implementation should be provided.

@GaNiziolek
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For those that are having trouble and the xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland service was not starting, I managed to work by installing xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland package with Pacman, instead of xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland-git with yay

@gmankab
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gmankab commented Feb 15, 2024

@kstepanovdev
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For those that are having trouble and the xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland service was not starting, I managed to work by installing xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland package with Pacman, instead of xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland-git with yay

It has been useful, thanks.

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