New graphical shell and wm using qt and mir for Ubuntu Core

Mir
1

Hey.

I want to develop a new graphical shell and a wm to work in ubuntu core for one of my projects.

WM will be simple: single app stays in the center, new launched app places the place of the old one.
Shell: top bar with some infos, bottom bar with apps.

I did some explorations and started to develop with qt (qtwayland).

My question is, would it work in ubuntu core or should I use some mir apis?

@alan_g can you please help me?

Thanks.

2

To run on core you’ll need to confine your shell/WM. That has implications.

I know we run Mir based shells on core, there’s no reason it can’t be done with qtwayland, but you’ll likely face a few puzzles along the way.

But regardless of the compositing technology there are a couple of blockers:

  • you can’t find out what apps are installed
  • you can’t run other snaps

FWIW mir-kiosk already supports multiple apps, they just need to be started outside the shell, typically by automatically running whenever they’re installed.

If that is enough for you, then cloning mir-kiosk and adding top bar and bottom bar sounds easier to me than starting over with Qt.

3

Thanks a lot for your reply.

Unfortunately mir-kiosk isn’t the right tool for my project.

Can’t we install unconfined snaps in the Core locally?

4

You’re get a more informed answer on snapcraft.io, but no: “classic” snaps cannot be installed on Ubuntu Core.

You can bypass much of the checking with “devmode”, but I won’t promise that solves things. (And relying on “devmode” would limit future use.)

5

Got it. Thanks a lot. :slight_smile: