Global keybinds don't work for electron apps running under native wayland.

[KhalidAlansary]

Hyprland version

Hyprland 0.49.0 built from branch at commit 9958d29 (version: bump to 0.49.0).

Regression

No.

Describe the bug

Following the (wiki about global keybinds)[https://wiki.hyprland.org/Configuring/Binds/#global-keybinds], they work fine for apps such as OBS and for electron apps such as Discord if it is running under XWayland. When I set the environment variable ELECTRON_OZONE_PLATFORM_HINT to auto in my config, the app runs under native wayland and the global keybinds stop working.

Reproduction steps

1. Run hyprctl clients to make sure discord is running under XWayland (which is the default)
2. Add a custom discord keybind (like Toggle Mute with ScrLk for example)
3. Add bind = , Scroll_Lock, pass, class:^discord$ to your hyprland config to pass the keybind to discord
4. The keybind should now work as expected
5. Add env = ELECTRON_OZONE_PLATFORM_HINT,auto and restart hyprland
6. Run hyprctl clients. You should now see xwayland: 0 under discord
7. Try the keybind again, it should stop working.

System info and config

sysInfo.txt

[d-hain]

I can +1 this.
I have been trying in all versions since global shortcuts where introduced and neither pass nor sendshortcut work with Elecron Apps running under native Wayland (Vesktop in my case).

Brave and Ghostty work as I have tried

[MMMaellon]

I'm currently using this janky workaround to get global shortcuts for vesktop:

bind = ,PAUSE, focuswindow, class:^(vesktop)$
bind = ,PAUSE,sendshortcut,CTRL SHIFT,M, class:^(vesktop)$
bind = ,PAUSE, focuscurrentorlast

[KhalidAlansary]

Janky indeed, but at least works. Thanks!

[d-hain]

Thank you so much, this works great as a workaround. ❤️

[Dashyyy]

I've tried it and while it works the problem is if the window actually has focus, it switches to the last window.
I have an idea to fix that with a small script, will keep you posted.

Update:
#10351 (comment)

[KhalidAlansary]

For anyone coming here for the same issue:
I found this question in the FAQ.
Seems like the issue is known to the hyprland team and there is no clean solution for this other than @MMMaellon workaround.

[justinvson-pd]

Won't running in xwayland break screen share on discord?

[KhalidAlansary]

Won't running in xwayland break screen share on discord?

No. Screen sharing works fine for me with or without xwayland.

[Dashyyy]

This small script should make it work without the issue mentioned in #10351 (reply in thread):
global-electron-sc.sh

#!/bin/bash
hyprctl activewindow | grep "$2: $3"
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then
    hyprctl dispatch sendshortcut $1, $2:$3
else
    hyprctl dispatch focuswindow $2:$3
    hyprctl dispatch sendshortcut $1, $2:$3
    hyprctl dispatch focuscurrentorlast
fi

Then just put this is your config

bind = $mainMod, V, exec, $scripts/global-electron-sc.sh "Ctrl_Shift, M" class discord

[KhalidAlansary]

Hi everyone

I thought I'd share this in case anyone else was bothered with the flickering caused by the workarounds @MMMaellon and @Dashyyy suggested.

I created a very basic plugin in Vencord that enables global keybinds using XDG portal. I opened a pull request to have it merged to Vencord, but it got rejected because I used raw DOM manipulation, which is against their rules.
Anyway, you can still use my plugin if you'd like. Just follow these instructions: https://docs.vencord.dev/installing . But replace their repository link with mine: https://github.com/KhalidAlansary/Vencord
To setup the keybinds in hyprland, you can do something like this:

bind = SUPERSHIFT, A, global, :toggle_mute
bind = SUPERSHIFT, D, global, :toggle_deafen

Also, I think this other dude implemented the global keybinds feature in a much better way for vencord, but I couldn't get it to work. Going to wait till his work is merged in the official Vesktop repo. Till then, I'll use my plugin. This is his repo: https://github.com/tuxinal/Vesktop

Hope this helps.

[Alexan-ded]

Has anyone tried setting any keybinds when Discord is running natively under Wayland? For me when I go to Settings -> Keybinds in Discord and press "Record Keybind", Discord doesn't pick up any input. If Discord is running under xwayland, it works.

[Dashyyy]

Update 2:
Discord uses Electron 35 however the feature has been introduced in 35.3, so it seems to not be in the normal Discord package.

I also tried it with the mentioned discord_arch_electron package and it isn't working with that and electron 36 either.

Maybe I missed something.
I have used all combinations of the folliwing flags from terminal, inside the .desktop file and inside discord-flags.conf to no avail.

--enable-features=UseOzonePlatform
--enable-features=GlobalShortcutsPortal
--ozone-platform=wayland

Discord shows this to me:

If somebody could try it with another electron app with a version higher than 35.3 it would be appreciated. I won't be able to do so until August.

[Dashyyy]

Update 3:

Because I am extremely inpatient i have looked into what actually causes the error.

I have tested it with vivaldi which does use a version of chromium that has the feature.

However it still didn't work. Running hyprctl globalsortcuts still returned none.
When I looked into the logs I could see the following error:

[72947:72947:0713/153830.254793:ERROR:chromium/components/dbus/xdg/request.cc:165] Request cancelled by user.
[72947:72947:0713/153830.254807:ERROR:chromium/ui/base/accelerators/global_accelerator_listener/global_accelerator_listener_linux.cc:205] Failed to call ListShortcuts (error code 4).

After looking into the chromium code at these places and into the dbus logs to me it seems that this is actually an error in the xdg portal of hyprland.
I was further convinced by this when I tested it with kde and it worked there instantly.

Chromium code:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/c05fe410e79c2c452955281d7ef7c7fc25c437ce/ui/base/accelerators/global_accelerator_listener/global_accelerator_listener_linux.cc
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/c05fe410e79c2c452955281d7ef7c7fc25c437ce/components/dbus/xdg/request.cc

[KhalidAlansary]

• The screenshot you shared from discord is unrelated to the issue. It just tells you that shortcuts (such as escape to close the settings) don't work while you have the keybinds settings panel open (because it may conflict with recording keybinds).
• I don't think the bug is in hyprland (at least not their xdg desktop portal implementation). My simple vencord plugin registers two keybinds using xdg portal and they run as expected in hyprland. Running hyprctl globalshortcuts lists them just fine.
• I'm not sure how or why it works on kde, but it's definetly not because of xdg. If an app registers a shortcut using xdg, it appears in KDE settings under keyboard shortcuts.
• The issue is discussed here. The fix is already merged in chromium. Not sure if it already come to the current version of electron or not.

[Dashyyy]

The screenshot you shared from discord is unrelated to the issue. It just tells you that shortcuts (such as escape to close the settings) don't work while you have the keybinds settings panel open (because it may conflict with recording keybinds).

makes sense mistake on my end

I'm not sure how or why it works on kde, but it's definetly not because of xdg. If an app registers a shortcut using xdg, it appears in KDE settings under keyboard shortcuts.

Well... It did, that's what I was saying ... it appeared in the kde shortcuts tab the moment I set it to global in chromium.

The issue is discussed electron/electron#38288. The fix is already merged in chromium. Not sure if it already come to the current version of electron or not.

The issue you linked is way outdated.
Did you actually read my comment above? :/

it seems that this should be fixed in chromium as of january, and in Electron since Februrary and version 35.
However it is unclear if it fully works, see electron/electron#45607 and electron/electron#45171.

[Dashyyy]

I don't think the bug is in hyprland (at least not their xdg desktop portal implementation). My simple vencord plugin registers two keybinds using xdg portal and they run as expected in hyprland. Running hyprctl globalshortcuts lists them just fine.

That is however interesting, did you provide a description when you register the shortcut?

Update: Doesn't make a difference, will test some things, I have a pretty good idea of what is actually happening, but I still need to find out the why

[Dashyyy]

After much testing and trail & error i am confident that this is an error in Hyprland, specifically the xdg-desktop-portal.
(See comments by me above)

I will maybe spend some time to get it working and create a pr in August.

[aalhitennf]

I did get my mouse5 working as global ptt shortcut with

bind = , mouse:275, pass, class:^(discord)$

but only when i run discord in xwayland. Using flatpak version. Tried flatpak + wayland, package from repo + wayland, but it discord doesn't seem to get any input at all when even trying to assign ptt bind. hyprctl globalshortuts returns none with every combination i have tried.

[KhalidAlansary]

That's what we all experience. Global shortcuts work fine when running under xwayland. hyprctl globalshortcuts only show shortcuts for apps that support the xdg portal, which the official discord doesn't support (i have a plugin mentioned above that adds xdg support if you'd like to check it out).

[Dashyyy]

Update:
What I found out was that the issue was in ListShortcuts which chromium (and probably also eletron) does call before exposing global shortcuts.
I wanted to fix the issue but it turns out this has already been done by this commit. There was no new release of the xdg-portal since so still doesn't work.
@vaxerski is there any reason to not update xdg-portal to include that fix?
And I don't know if it is expected but screenshare did not work when I ran on the latest commit, haven't looked into it further tho.

Regarding Discord:
SendShortcut did actually work on discord_arch_electron which does use the system provided electron, however it did not expose global shortucts and it currently crashes when screensharing. Yikes.
Maybe the electron version of discord needs to be updated.
I'll maybe look into making discord_arch_electron work again.

[vaxerski]

is there any reason to not update xdg-portal to include that fix?

I just forgor 💀 💀

[vaxerski]

https://github.com/hyprwm/xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland/releases/tag/v1.3.10

[nicklozon]

Did 1.3.10 fix it for you Dashyyy?

I'm still having the same issue, but I guess that makes sense - recording keybinds is likely completely separate from global shortcuts. It really seems like discord is not capturing key presses correctly, even without global keybinds - when the discord window is focused, the keybind is pre-configured, and there are no hyprland binds configured, the keybind still doesn't work.

Edit: It does look like the latest Discord and DiscordPTB packages on arch are running Electron 35.3.0