Ubuntu's Mir 2.8 Released With Working Towards Hybrid GPU Support

Mir 2.8 is now available as the newest feature update to this Wayland compositor developed by Canonical for various Ubuntu use-cases, primarily around IoT, digital signage, and similar fields.

While Mir is not used by the Ubuntu desktop, Canonical continues investing in Mir for helping to build Wayland-based shells for Ubuntu Core and other customized Ubuntu environments. Mir makes it easier for developers to get started working on their shells and avoiding lots of the grunt work in otherwise creating your own Wayland compositor.

Mir is used by smart exercise mirrors among other applications.

Mir 2.8 features a code refactoring around the platform probing and related code as they work towards being able to handle hybrid GPU setups. Mir doesn't yet play nicely with such configurations of having dual GPUs like integrated and discrete graphics, but they are working in that direction.

Mir 2.8 also brings other low-level changes to its code and build configuration, support for making window titles a configuration option, Mold can now be used as a linker when building Mir, support for wlr_screencopy_unstable_v1 as a Wayland protocol for handling screenshots, and many bug fixes. There is also refactored Wayland keyboard input code to address inconsistencies around keyboard focus and events.

Downloads and the full change-log for Mir 2.8 via GitHub.