So I ran updates last night and this morning my login screen looks like this. I can move the mouse around but it does not respond to any button clicks or key presses but I can get to TTY.

I have no idea how to begin fixing this. Is anyone else having this problem? Anyone know how to solve it?

Hi r/linux, I'm Brando, the creator of Vela.

Vela is an independent*, vertically integrated Wayland desktop environment for Linux. It has a custom compositor built on wlroots and a pure Vulkan 1.4 renderer (no gl fallback) with a desktop shell written in Qt 6 / Qt Quick.

A lot of new Wayland projects today are minimal window managers where you assemble your own userland, or massive legacy codebases carrying decades of X11 and OpenGL baggage. I don't like either of them, at least not for my desktop. I started Vela to build a cohesive, monolithic desktop environment designed from scratch around modern GPU pipelines and strict latency budgets. This is why you see "Modern, Fluid, Sharp" in the velade.org's slogan.

I think Vela deserves your attention because it builds on the very good low-level wlroots, while still offering something different from others wlroots-based compositors. By implementing its own scene graph and Vulkan renderer instead of relying on the standard rendering infrastructure, Vela retains direct control over how frames are rendered, synchronized, and presented.

This architectural approach enables several interesting features:

• Custom scene graph and Vulkan renderer: I didn't want to rely on wlr_scene, so I built my own scene graph directly around the Vulkan 1.4 renderer. This avoids duplicating state between the compositor and renderer, and gives me more control over GPU synchronization.
• Independent frame clocks for each monitor: Each output has its own frame clock, with GPU-timestamp-based late latching. This is especially useful with monitors running at different refresh rates.
• Fractional scaling without the usual blur: I wanted fractional scaling to look sharp, without the bilinear filtering you often see on Wayland. Vela uses a pixel-exact path that preserves 1:1 buffer copies where possible. I also added bit-for-bit tests to CI to catch regressions.
• Qt 6 shell: I chose Qt Quick for the desktop UI because it's practical to work with, and I'm not trying to reinvent everything. Vela still uses some KDE components for things like system integration.

Current status: Vela is currently in Alpha. The core compositor, Vulkan pipeline, diagnostic tooling, and test suite are up and running, though plenty of desktop polish is still in active development.

\Currently Vela needs KDE Plasma installed to inherit icons, fonts, login manager (you can also use sddm), kwallet, portal, and a few other components; vela doesn't needs kwin; please remember this is alpha.*

I know Vela is currently very similiar to Windows 11, it is because I like Windows 11 design. But it's just temporary, Vela will have its own identity soon. For now, I'm particularly interested in feedback on the underlying desktop experience, performance, and architecture.

I'd love your feedback on all the DE, the Vulkan synchronization model. Consider I'm making a major redesign coming in next weeks. Happy to answer any questions!

• GitHub: https://github.com/vela-desktop/vela
• Website: https://velade.org