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KDE Plasma Nears Wayland Completion, Targeting 2027

KDE Plasma Nears Wayland Completion — Ready for 2027
Wayland Nears Finish
  • Key Takeaways:
  • KDE says the Plasma desktop’s move to Wayland “nears completion” after major 2025 work.
  • Plasma 6.8 is planned to drop X11 session support (keeping XWayland) as part of a Wayland-only push toward 2027.
  • 2025 improvements included HDR/color fixes, new Wayland protocols, better tablet support, overlay planes, and screen mirroring.
  • Remaining high-priority issues are window position restoring and headless RDP; developers are actively working on fixes.

Plasma's 2025 Wayland progress

KDE developer Nate Graham summarized a year of focused Wayland development for Plasma. The project addressed many long-standing gaps, moving the desktop closer to a default Wayland-only experience.

The transition has been resource-heavy and iterative, but the team reports tangible wins across graphics, input, and accessibility areas.

Wayland protocol and media support

In 2025 Plasma gained support for several modern Wayland protocols and media pathways. That includes improved HDR and color-management handling and P010 video color support for better video fidelity.

New protocol work implemented includes xdg-toplevel-tag, color-representation, fio, and xx_pip among others, expanding compatibility with contemporary Wayland features.

Graphics and display features

Developers added overlay plane support, RandR emulation, screen mirroring, and custom display modes. These changes help on systems that rely on advanced DRM features or need multi-monitor flexibility.

Input, accessibility, and portals

Drawing tablet support and accessibility refinements were improved in Plasma’s Wayland session. Portal-based permission flows received enhancements like pre-authorization and clipboard/USB portal work to smooth sandboxed app interactions.

These changes reduce friction for Flatpak and other sandboxed app ecosystems.

Remaining gaps and priorities

Despite the progress, Nate Graham highlighted two major pain points: restoring window positions reliably and headless Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) scenarios.

He wrote: "Now, Plasma’s Wayland support isn’t perfect yet… the two remaining major sources of complaints are window position restoring and headless RDP. We’re aware and working on solutions! I can’t make any promises about outcomes, but I can promise effort on these topics."

Roadmap: 2026 work and the move to Wayland-only

KDE is planning concentrated Wayland work in 2026 to prepare for ending the Plasma X11 session in 2027. The stated plan is for Plasma 6.8 to become Wayland-exclusive, dropping X11 session support while retaining XWayland so legacy clients continue to run.

Distributions and users should expect incremental changes through 2026 as KDE tightens compatibility and addresses the remaining issues.

Other desktop refinements in 2025

Beyond Wayland, Plasma gained UI improvements such as rounded bottom window corners, panel cloning, and multiple UX polish items that improve the day-to-day desktop experience.

What to expect

Users and admins should watch Plasma 6.x releases and distribution notes in 2026. Broad testing, bug reports, and distro-level updates will determine when the Wayland-only milestone is practical for production deployments.

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