Wayback is an X11 compatibility layer that allows for running full X11-only desktop environments using Wayland

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Currently in alpha stage, better support is expected in 2026 year. Version 0.2 is released.

Official site: https://wayback.freedesktop.org/

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Wayback is an X11 compatibility layer that allows for running full X11-only desktop environments using Wayland. It is essentially an X11 server backed by Wayland, leveraging wlroots and Xwayland. Our goal is for Wayback to eventually be a completely drop-in replacement to the Xorg binary, thus reducing maintenance burden for distro maintainers.

How does it work?

Wayback is essentially a stub Wayland compositor which sits in front of Xwayland. It implements only what is needed for a rootful Xwayland to run, essentially acting as a full X server backed by Wayland. This allows using X11-only desktop environments and window managers under a Wayland base.

What’s the current status?

Wayback is still in an experimental state. A lot of work needs to be done currently, but it is already daily-driveable by users with basic setups and requirements, although expect breaking changes and bugs. You can help us make Wayback stable by reporting and fixing bugs you encounter.

Wayback at Phoronix: Wayback - Phoronix

Available for TW and Leap 16.0 with Experimental repos: openSUSE Software

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If someone will post how to set it up to run MATE, I would be happy to test it in Leap 16.
It would be nice if it supported x11vnc. That would make removing X11 a no brainer for me to support lots of remote Leap users.

I know that rustdesk will allow remote connection, but there are decades old scripts that ssh and open ports to remote machines for me to get in without any interventions and ssh allows be to support them even if the GUI is not working.

It took a long time to get users to use Linux with gnome 2. MATE is gnome 2 with some name changes. No user retraining was needed to move them from gnome 2 to MATE.

It is too bad that MATE is no longer an install option in Leap 16. You have to install it as a pattern after Leap 16 is finished installing and reboots.