mesa: `wayland-client` linked in executable is incompatible with Mesa driver in NixOS

[axelkar]

Nixpkgs version

• Stable (25.05)

Describe the bug

When the version/path of wayland-client is set explicitly for an executable built with an older version of Nixpkgs than the NixOS system, it may break Mesa, because it expects a specific version of wayland-client.

Steps to reproduce

• nixos-25.05 flake (Wayland 1.23.1)
• nixos-unstable NixOS (Mesa 25.2.3, Wayland 1.24.0)

1. Run NixOS from nixos-unstable branch with hardware.graphics.enable = true;.

2. Clone wgpu

3. Set LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<wayland-client>/lib or set linker options (e.g. via NIX_LDFLAGS or RUSTFLAGS) to with -L<wayland-client>/lib -lwayland-client (Note: wayland-client from nixos-25.05 branch). This is recommended in lots of places to get winit working.

   For example, nix-shell shell.nix --arg pkgs 'import (builtins.getFlake "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-25.05") { }'.

4. Try running cargo run --bin wgpu-examples boids

5. Get errors like this:

   [2025-10-13T19:45:52Z ERROR wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance] GENERAL [Loader Message (0x0)]
           /nix/store/0imsfp6ixij9pqr25wrxizcs6m8hhj0w-mesa-25.2.3/lib/libvulkan_radeon.so: undefined symbol: wl_display_dispatch_queue_timeout
   [2025-10-13T19:45:52Z ERROR wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance]         objects: (type: INSTANCE, hndl: 0x555557ce3ed0, name: ?)
   [2025-10-13T19:45:52Z ERROR wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance] GENERAL [Loader Message (0x0)]
           loader_icd_scan: Failed loading library associated with ICD JSON /nix/store/0imsfp6ixij9pqr25wrxizcs6m8hhj0w-mesa-25.2.3/lib/libvulkan_radeon.so. Ignoring this JSON
   [...]
   [2025-10-13T19:45:52Z ERROR wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance]         objects: (type: INSTANCE, hndl: 0x555557ce3ed0, name: ?)
   [2025-10-13T19:45:52Z ERROR wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance] GENERAL [Loader Message (0x0)]
           vkCreateInstance: Found no drivers!
   [2025-10-13T19:45:52Z ERROR wgpu_hal::vulkan::instance]         objects: (type: INSTANCE, hndl: 0x555557ce3ed0, name: ?)
   

Expected behaviour

It should "just work". I think? See the response to a Debian bug report below.

Screenshots

No response

Relevant log output

Additional context

https://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2025/09/msg00083.html

System metadata

• system: "x86_64-linux"
• host os: Linux 6.16.9, NixOS, 25.11 (Xantusia), 25.11.20250928.e9f00bd
• multi-user?: yes
• sandbox: yes
• version: nix-env (Nix) 2.31.2
• channels(root): "home-manager, nixos"
• channels(axel): ""
• nixpkgs: /nix/store/npsan903n6s1f30nrip3fvqkmx8fxwgg-source

Notify maintainers

mesa package maintainers: @K900 @primeos @vcunat
wayland package maintainers: @primeos @codyopel @alyssais

---

Note for maintainers: Please tag this issue in your pull request description. (i.e. Resolves #ISSUE.)

I assert that this issue is relevant for Nixpkgs

• I assert that this is a bug and not a support request.
• I assert that this is not a duplicate of an existing issue.
• I assert that I have read the NixOS Code of Conduct and agree to abide by it.

Is this issue important to you?

Add a 👍 reaction to issues you find important.

[K900]

That is a known ABI break in upstream libwayland. Nothing we can do here, really.

[axelkar]

That is a known ABI break in upstream libwayland.

What do you mean? To my knowledge, it's just a new API that Mesa is eager to use.

Nothing we can do here, really.

Would it be posssible to manually compile in the fallback? I.e. make mesa support older wayland-client versions? Mesa hasn't done anything wrong here because it conditionally depends on wayland-client having it. We're kind of enabling this to happen by having two versions of wayland-client in the same closure.

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/blob/fb8f0794ea6e9ae6fce96570c5259bbf1fb54924/meson.build#L2017-2022

[vcunat]

Allowing version mixing is hard (for stuff that links dynamically together). It's well known problem here.