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¡Working! GNOME Wayland on Ubuntu 25.10: workaround is aw-awatcher + Focused Window D-Bus #1218

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¡Working! GNOME Wayland on Ubuntu 25.10: workaround is aw-awatcher + Focused Window D-Bus#1218
@saldain

Description

@saldain
saldain
opened on Mar 19, 2026

Running ActivityWatch on GNOME Wayland (Ubuntu 25.10) by replacing default watchers with aw-awatcher

Summary

On an Acer Predator PT315-52 running Ubuntu 25.10, GNOME Shell 49.0, Wayland, and Linux 6.17.0-19-generic, the standard ActivityWatch Linux setup worked partially: the web UI came up, but the default Linux watchers failed repeatedly with X11 display authorization errors.

The workaround that succeeded was:

  1. Install ActivityWatch normally.
  2. Confirm that the desktop session is Wayland.
  3. Stop using the default watchers (aw-watcher-window and aw-watcher-afk).
  4. Keep aw-server as the backend.
  5. Install the GNOME extension Focused Window D-Bus.
  6. Install aw-awatcher as the Wayland-compatible replacement.
  7. Use custom start.sh / kill.sh scripts and a GNOME autostart entry.

Environment

Static hostname: PT315-52
Icon name: computer-laptop
Chassis: laptop 💻
Machine ID: ****
Boot ID: ****
Operating System: Ubuntu 25.10
Kernel: Linux 6.17.0-19-generic
Architecture: x86-64
Hardware Vendor: Acer
Hardware Model: Predator PT315-52
Firmware Version: V1.09
Firmware Date: Mon 2021-01-04
Firmware Age: 5y 2month 1w 6d
Desktop: GNOME Shell 49.0
Session type: Wayland

Original problem

After installing ActivityWatch and launching it, the web UI was available at http://localhost:5600, but aw-watcher-window kept failing with this error:

Xlib.error.DisplayConnectionError: Can't connect to display ":0": b'Authorization required, but no authorization protocol specified\n'

Later, when trying a script-based startup with aw-watcher-afk, that watcher also failed with the same X11 authorization problem.

So the core pattern was:

  • aw-server worked.
  • the web UI worked.
  • the default watchers failed on GNOME + Wayland.

What we verified first

We confirmed the session type:

echo "$XDG_SESSION_TYPE"

Output:

wayland

We also checked the GNOME version:

gnome-shell --version

Output:

GNOME Shell 49.0

Step 1 - Install ActivityWatch normally

We first installed the regular Linux build exactly as recommended for Linux ZIP installs.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y wget unzip

mkdir -p ~/.local/opt
cd ~/.local/opt

wget -O activitywatch.zip https://github.com/ActivityWatch/activitywatch/releases/download/v0.13.2/activitywatch-v0.13.2-linux-x86_64.zip
unzip -q activitywatch.zip
rm activitywatch.zip

cd activitywatch
./aw-qt

At this stage, the web UI became available, but the default watchers were not usable in this GNOME Wayland setup.

Step 2 - Stop the failing default watchers

We stopped the watchers that were flooding the terminal/logs:

pkill -f aw-watcher-window
pkill -f aw-watcher-window-wayland
ps aux | grep aw-watcher

This confirmed that aw-watcher-window was no longer running.

Step 3 - Inspect how ActivityWatch was configured

We looked for ActivityWatch-related autostart entries and config files.

Search autostart-related entries

grep -RniE '^(Exec|Name|Hidden|X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled)=|aw-qt|aw-watcher-window|aw-watcher-afk|start.sh' \
~/.config/autostart ~/.local/share/applications 2>/dev/null

Check config directory

ls -R ~/.config/activitywatch 2>/dev/null

Inspect aw-qt.toml

sed -n '1,120p' ~/.config/activitywatch/aw-qt/aw-qt.toml

The file contained only commented defaults:

[aw-qt]
#autostart_modules = ["aw-server", "aw-watcher-afk", "aw-watcher-window"]

[aw-qt-testing]
#autostart_modules = ["aw-server", "aw-watcher-afk", "aw-watcher-window"]

Step 4 - Remove the default watchers from aw-qt

We replaced the commented defaults with an explicit configuration.

First, we tried keeping only aw-server and aw-watcher-afk:

cp ~/.config/activitywatch/aw-qt/aw-qt.toml ~/.config/activitywatch/aw-qt/aw-qt.toml.bak

cat > ~/.config/activitywatch/aw-qt/aw-qt.toml <<'EOF2'
[aw-qt]
autostart_modules = ["aw-server", "aw-watcher-afk"]

[aw-qt-testing]
autostart_modules = ["aw-server", "aw-watcher-afk"]
EOF2

But aw-watcher-afk also failed under this environment.

So we reduced the configuration to aw-server only:

cat > ~/.config/activitywatch/aw-qt/aw-qt.toml <<'EOF2'
[aw-qt]
autostart_modules = ["aw-server"]

[aw-qt-testing]
autostart_modules = ["aw-server"]
EOF2

Step 5 - Try GNOME-style script-based startup

Because GNOME/Wayland is a special case, we switched to a script-based startup model.

First version of start.sh

cat > ~/.local/opt/activitywatch/start.sh <<'EOF2'
#!/bin/bash
cd ~/.local/opt/activitywatch
pkill -f aw-watcher-window 2>/dev/null
pkill -f aw-watcher-afk 2>/dev/null
pkill -f '/aw-server/aw-server' 2>/dev/null
./aw-server/aw-server >/tmp/aw-server.log 2>&1 &
EOF2

First version of kill.sh

cat > ~/.local/opt/activitywatch/kill.sh <<'EOF2'
#!/bin/bash
pkill -f aw-watcher-window
pkill -f aw-watcher-afk
pkill -f '/aw-server/aw-server'
EOF2

chmod +x ~/.local/opt/activitywatch/start.sh ~/.local/opt/activitywatch/kill.sh

Test

~/.local/opt/activitywatch/kill.sh
~/.local/opt/activitywatch/start.sh
sleep 2
ps aux | grep -E 'aw-server|aw-watcher-afk|aw-watcher-window' | grep -v grep

Result: aw-server stayed up, but the default watchers remained unusable.

Step 6 - Confirm aw-watcher-afk also fails on this setup

When we tried starting aw-watcher-afk, we inspected its log:

cat /tmp/aw-watcher-afk.log 2>/dev/null || echo "no hay log"

The relevant error was again an X11 display connection problem:

ImportError: this platform is not supported: ('failed to acquire X connection: Can\'t connect to display ":0": b\'Authorization required, but no authorization protocol specified\\n\'', DisplayConnectionError(':0', b'Authorization required, but no authorization protocol specified\n'))

At that point we concluded that, in this particular GNOME Wayland setup, the stable path was:

  • keep aw-server
  • replace the default watchers entirely

Step 7 - Install the required GNOME extension

We installed the Focused Window D-Bus GNOME extension, then verified that it was present.

gnome-extensions list

Relevant output:

focused-window-dbus@flexagoon.com

This extension is required by awatcher for GNOME Wayland focused-window reporting.

Step 8 - Install aw-awatcher

We downloaded and installed the ActivityWatch-compatible watcher replacement:

cd /tmp
wget -O aw-awatcher.zip https://github.com/2e3s/awatcher/releases/download/v0.3.3/aw-awatcher.zip
sudo unzip -o aw-awatcher.zip -d /usr/local/bin
ls -l /usr/local/bin/aw-awatcher*

Expected result:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root ... /usr/local/bin/aw-awatcher

Step 9 - Test aw-awatcher manually

We launched it manually first, while keeping aw-server running:

/usr/local/bin/aw-awatcher >/tmp/aw-awatcher.log 2>&1 &
sleep 3
ps aux | grep -E 'aw-awatcher|aw-server' | grep -v grep

Then we checked the log:

cat /tmp/aw-awatcher.log

The log was empty, and the process stayed running, which indicated a clean start.

Step 10 - Update the startup scripts to use aw-awatcher

We then updated start.sh so it would:

  • kill the old default watchers
  • kill any previous aw-awatcher instance
  • start aw-server
  • wait briefly
  • start aw-awatcher

Final start.sh

cat > ~/.local/opt/activitywatch/start.sh <<'EOF2'
#!/bin/bash
cd ~/.local/opt/activitywatch
pkill -f aw-watcher-window 2>/dev/null
pkill -f aw-watcher-afk 2>/dev/null
pkill -f aw-awatcher 2>/dev/null
pkill -f '/aw-server/aw-server' 2>/dev/null
./aw-server/aw-server >/tmp/aw-server.log 2>&1 &
sleep 2
/usr/local/bin/aw-awatcher >/tmp/aw-awatcher.log 2>&1 &
EOF2

chmod +x ~/.local/opt/activitywatch/start.sh

Final kill.sh

cat > ~/.local/opt/activitywatch/kill.sh <<'EOF2'
#!/bin/bash
pkill -f aw-watcher-window
pkill -f aw-watcher-afk
pkill -f aw-awatcher
pkill -f '/aw-server/aw-server'
EOF2

chmod +x ~/.local/opt/activitywatch/kill.sh

Final test

~/.local/opt/activitywatch/kill.sh
~/.local/opt/activitywatch/start.sh
sleep 3
ps aux | grep -E 'aw-server|aw-awatcher|aw-watcher-afk|aw-watcher-window' | grep -v grep

Expected result:

  • aw-server is running
  • aw-awatcher is running
  • aw-watcher-afk is not running
  • aw-watcher-window is not running

Step 11 - Enable autostart on GNOME

Finally, we created a desktop autostart entry:

mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart

cat > ~/.config/autostart/activitywatch-wayland.desktop <<'EOF2'
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=ActivityWatch Wayland
Exec=/home/mateo/.local/opt/activitywatch/start.sh
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
Terminal=false
EOF2

After logout/login or reboot, ActivityWatch should start through start.sh and avoid relaunching the unsupported default watchers.

Final state

The stable working configuration on this machine was:

  • ActivityWatch installed normally
  • aw-server kept as backend
  • default watchers disabled for autostart
  • GNOME extension focused-window-dbus@flexagoon.com installed
  • aw-awatcher installed to /usr/local/bin
  • custom start.sh / kill.sh used instead of the default watcher startup flow
  • GNOME autostart entry pointing to start.sh

Why this worked

The root cause appears to be that the default ActivityWatch Linux watchers depend on mechanisms that do not work reliably in this GNOME Wayland setup, while awatcher uses a GNOME Wayland-compatible path when the required extension is installed.

In short:

  • aw-server itself was fine.
  • the issue was with the default watchers.
  • replacing them with aw-awatcher solved the problem.

Sources consulted

This was posible by the use of OpenAI ChatGPT 5.4 Thinking

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