Wayland Protocols 1.49 has been released — a set of specifications for additional Wayland protocols used by compositors, graphical toolkits, and applications to implement features that are not part of the core Wayland protocol. The project describes extensions such as GPU buffer sharing, color management, scaling, sessions, and other mechanisms that make up modern Wayland desktops.
Release Wayland Protocols 1.49 has been published June 7, 2026. The main changes are not related to user settings but to low-level infrastructure: multi-GPU, HDR/color, and fractional scaling.
Key Innovations
Improved support for multi-GPU in linux-dmabuf-v1.
The protocol has been enhanced with features that allow the compositor to explicitly declare multiple GPU devices and inform clients about which formats and buffer modifiers it can correctly import and use. This is crucial for systems where an application renders frames on one GPU, while the compositor or display output operates through another GPU. Previously, clients had no reliable way to determine in advance whether the compositor would accept a DMA-BUF buffer created on a non-'primary' device.Support for Windows BT.2100 image description request has been added in color-management-v1.
This change pertains to color management and HDR infrastructure. It enables Wayland compositors to implement special handling for HDR content utilizing the Windows-compatible image description BT.2100. The practical implication is another step towards more predictable transmission of HDR metadata and color characteristics between applications and the compositor.An experimental protocol xx-fractional-scale-v2 has been added.
The new fractional scaling protocol aims to address some limitations of its first version. It allows clients and compositors to use a separate coordinate space for exchanging surface coordinates, making interactions at scales like 125%, 150%, or 175% more accurate. For now, this is an experimental protocol, meaning its API should not yet be considered definitively stable.The development of staged/experimental protocols has continued.
Wayland Protocols categorizes extensions based on stages: experimental protocols may change incompatibly, staging protocols are intended for wider testing, while stable protocols are considered sufficiently vetted for long-term use. Thus, the emergence of xx-fractional-scale-v2 in the experimental zone does not imply immediate widespread support across all environments, but rather the beginning of standardized testing for the new scaling scheme.
Overall Wayland Protocols 1.49 — an infrastructure release for compositors, toolkits, and the driver graphics stack developers. Its effect for the user will manifest later: in more reliable hybrid graphics performance, correct HDR, and fewer issues with fractional scaling in Wayland sessions.
Source: linux.org.ru
