Suggestions for GUI system in WSL2

[yassinegannoun]

Hello everyone,
I am using WSL2 for raylib and noticed the same issue when running the same script trying to hide cursor similar to this #5288.

This is my output:
INFO: Initializing raylib 6.0
INFO: Platform backend: DESKTOP (GLFW)
INFO: Supported raylib modules:
INFO: > rcore:..... loaded (mandatory)
INFO: > rlgl:...... loaded (mandatory)
INFO: > rshapes:... loaded (optional)
INFO: > rtextures:. loaded (optional)
INFO: > rtext:..... loaded (optional)
INFO: > rmodels:... loaded (optional)
INFO: > raudio:.... loaded (optional)
INFO: DISPLAY: Device initialized successfully
INFO: > Display size: 1920 x 1080
INFO: > Screen size: 800 x 600
INFO: > Render size: 800 x 600
INFO: > Viewport offsets: 0, 0
INFO: GLAD: OpenGL extensions loaded successfully
INFO: GL: Supported extensions count: 229
INFO: GL: OpenGL device information:
INFO: > Vendor: Mesa
INFO: > Renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 20.1.2, 256 bits)
INFO: > Version: 4.5 (Core Profile) Mesa 25.2.8-0ubuntu0.24.04.2
INFO: > GLSL: 4.50
INFO: GL: VAO extension detected, VAO functions loaded successfully
INFO: GL: NPOT textures extension detected, full NPOT textures supported
INFO: GL: DXT compressed textures supported
INFO: GL: ETC2/EAC compressed textures supported
INFO: PLATFORM: DESKTOP (GLFW - X11): Initialized successfully

What do people usually use when working with raylib on WSL? Not sure if this is strictly x11 issue, please enlighten me.

Thank you!

[igrizzz]

If you're using WSL2 on Windows 11, I would first check whether WSLg is available and being used.

Your log shows:

PLATFORM: DESKTOP (GLFW - X11)

and:

Renderer: llvmpipe

The second line is particularly interesting. llvmpipe means Mesa is currently doing the OpenGL rendering in software rather than using the GPU.

On a normal Windows 11 + WSL2 + WSLg setup, I would expect the Linux GUI application to be displayed through WSLg, without having to manually configure an X server such as VcXsrv.

I would check these first:

echo $DISPLAY
echo $WAYLAND_DISPLAY
echo $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
glxinfo -B

If WSLg is working correctly, WAYLAND_DISPLAY should normally be present, and glxinfo -B should tell you which renderer is actually being used.

For raylib itself, you shouldn't normally need a special GUI framework. GLFW is already providing the window/input layer used by the desktop backend.

So I would separate the problems:

• If the window works but performance is poor → investigate why Mesa is falling back to llvmpipe.
• If the window doesn't appear or cursor operations don't behave correctly → investigate the X11/Wayland/WSLg interaction.

Since you're specifically having trouble with hiding the cursor, I would also test whether the same minimal raylib program behaves differently under native Linux, WSLg/Wayland, and X11.

The llvmpipe result is probably the first thing I'd investigate before changing the GUI system.