Ubuntu 24.04, arguably the most popular of the desktop distros - not arguing best, just popular - and Xojo still doesn’t get basic things right.
Every time I try to get my app running on Linux, I run into some sort of showstopper. Xojo fixes it, but because releases are so far apart and I only update the Xojo version I use on major app updates to keep the bugs predictable, it means this possibility keeps slipping.
So sure enough here I am planning another major update, using 2026r2.1, trying again to get it going on Linux, and overall it’s pretty good. Except many of my window sizes are weird. At first it looks like I can’t set Height below MinimumHeight, which is fine, I can get behind that. Except no that’s not quite it. Then it seems like I can only set MinimumHeight once, or maybe can not set it smaller. But that’s not quite it either. Something is going on, but I can’t quite nail it down, so I throw together a simple app to visualize the interactions.
And that’s when I notice that setting Self.Height is changing the width with a little bit of height too.
https://youtu.be/m8WWxeEcTBU
This is one of the most basic of functions! How does Xojo get this wrong!? Are there any distros I should try where Xojo actually works as intended?
Height Test.xojo_binary_project.zip (5.0 KB)
Yes, I run into the same issues you are having.
I usually find that Ubuntu and raspberry pi os are ‘more reliable’ when comparing the Linux distros with xojo.
Issues really increased when Xojo was switching to wayland graphics. I have tried many c++ plugins to workaround these issues, and haven’t been able to help to fix xojo code…yet.
Maybe things will get better when wayland becomes more compatible, as the c community is having a lot of issues with wayland.
I try to test my desktop apps as thoroughly as I can on Linux but, truth be told, I’ve had to add warnings that things just might not operate as expected on Linux or stopped distributing my apps for that OS. There’s only so much we can do, really.
I’m beginning to grasp at straws. This app will be 10 years old in September. I started it with the intention of bringing it to Linux and mobile and made sure to separate as much logic from the UI as possible to make that more reasonable. 10 years later and Xojo’s support for both still sucks.
My app is in the gaming space, and which has seen more and more players switching to Linux, especially with the release of Valve’s machines and SteamOS. I’m trying to give my users what they need, but Xojo keeps that difficult. To make matters more frustrating, the app works really well on Ubuntu aside from the window sizing problems.
Oh and I just found this one that is related to my original issue: https://tracker.xojo.com/xojoinc/xojo/-/work_items/49455.
It’s from 2017. It’ll be 9 years old in a couple weeks. Xojo does not care.
And here’s the second half of my original issue: https://tracker.xojo.com/xojoinc/xojo/-/work_items/81825
Looks like Linux support is not going to be a 10th anniversary announcement. There’s too many issues.
I think that’s only to a lesser part Xojo’s fault. We do want to control our window’s size and position, but Wayland’s developer’s view on this seems to be that this is entirely up to the compositor. Everybody implementing a compositor (which is an integral part of a wayland system, not an add-on component as in x11) adds ways to give back control to application developers, but there is no standard way you can rely on at the moment.
When did this switch to Wayland happen? The documentation still recommends do use the x11 back end on a Wayland system. See System Requirements - Wayland, Ind I did not find anything regarding a switch to support Wayland in the release notes, only a view adjustments to make things work on Wayland.
@Thom_McGrath regarding to your initial question i.e. the topic of this thread: In the System requirements (see link above at the top of the page) Xojo lists supported distributions. You should be entitled to hold Xojo responsible on these. I don’t know how they could make such a claim though, without specifying the windowing system (Wayland including the compositor; x11), window manager, desktop environment, desktop theme and probably more, that messes on Linux with the visual aspects of an app, and how things should work in the GUI.
Anyway, with my limited experience with Xojo on Linux, there is no distribution that work flawless with Xojo apps. You may find some you can fix things, so it becomes acceptable.
Yes, I agree with almost everything you mentioned.when c++ code is having issues on Wayland, and xojo code is based on c++ code, then issues are bound to happen.
Here is the link where xojo is to fully implement Wayland in future versions.
To help xojo, I started writing a book on Wayland graphics. Because of the large number of incompatibilities I had to scrap the project. I had to default back to the x11 graphics.
I’m not saying it’s xojos fault, although the timing may have been too fast to jump on the Wayland bandwagon.
@Eugene_Dakin
well you raise a good question.
2026 and default windows is WINAPI and WINUI3 is still beta and being added.
Wayland is the default on so many GNU/Linux distros for so long now
Not looking ok for production work in 2026 if all of this is so far behind.
To be fair, it’s also about 12 years since Linus gave his famous comments on the state of Linux desktop, and not sure how much progress there really has been since.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf0PuIhbNkY
@Timo_Ruohomaki
I do appreciate everything Linus has given us, but honestly he needs to stick to the kernel side.