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  2. /
  3. Configuring
  4. /
  5. Environment Variables

Environment Variables

You can use the env keyword to set environment variables prior to the initialization of the Display Server, e.g.:

env = GTK_THEME,Nord

Please avoid putting those environment variables in /etc/environment. That will cause all sessions (including Xorg ones) to pick up your wayland-specific environment on traditional Linux distros.

XDG Specifications

  • XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Hyprland
  • XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland
  • XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=Hyprland

XDG specific environment variables are often detected through portals and applications that may set those for you, however it is not a bad idea to set them explicitly.

QT Variables

  • QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=1 - (From the QT documentation) enables automatic scaling, based on the monitor’s pixel density
  • QT_QPA_PLATFORM="wayland;xcb" - Tell QT applications to use the Wayland backend, and fall back to x11 if Wayland is unavailable
  • QT_WAYLAND_DISABLE_WINDOWDECORATION=1 - Disables window decorations on QT applications
  • QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct - Tells QT based applications to pick your theme from qt5ct, use with Kvantum.

NVIDIA Specific

To force GBM as a backend, set the following environment variables:

  • GBM_BACKEND=nvidia-drm
  • __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia

See Archwiki Wayland Page for more details on those variables.

  • LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=nvidia - Hardware acceleration on NVIDIA GPUs

See Archwiki Hardware Acecleration Page for details and necessary values before setting this variable.

  • __GL_GSYNC_ALLOWED - Controls if G-Sync capable monitors should use Variable Refresh Rate (VRR)

See Nvidia Documentation for details.

  • __GL_VRR_ALLOWED - Controls if Adaptive Sync should be used. Recommended to set as “0” to avoid having problems on some games.

  • WLR_DRM_NO_ATOMIC=1 - use legacy DRM interface instead of atomic mode setting. Might fix flickering issues.

Toolkit Backend Variables

  • SDL_VIDEODRIVER=wayland - Run SDL2 applications on Wayland. Remove or set to x11 if games that provide older versions of SDL cause compatibility issues

  • _JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1 - Fix possibly broken Java applications. Set to 1 until Wakefield is available.

  • CLUTTER_BACKEND="wayland" - Clutter package already has wayland enabled, this variable will force Clutter applications to try and use the Wayland backend

  • GDK_BACKEND - Force backend for wayland-enabled GTK3 and GTK4 backends. Available options are “wayland” or “x11”. If GTK XWayland applications cause issues when set to “wayland”, try “wayland,x11”

Theming Related Variables

  • GTK_THEME - Set a GTK theme manually, for those who want to avoid appearance tools such as lxappearance or nwg-look
  • XCURSOR_THEME - Set your cursor theme. The theme needs to be installed and readable by your user.
  • XCURSOR_SIZE - Set cursor size. See here for why you might want this variable set.