Mullvad VPN on ElementaryOS 8.1: GUI no longer shows minimise/close buttons next to title bar

[sees7ern]

What Happened?

I originally submitted this issue report to the MullvadVPN developers, but they indicate that this is a Gala issue. My original report and their reply can be found here: mullvad/mullvadvpn-app#10046

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As usual, I have updated Mullvad VPN via CLI as described on the Mullvad website (https://mullvad.net/en/download/vpn/linux).

It has successfully updated the app to version 2026.1 on all my laptops running either Ubuntu (24.04.4 LTS) or ElementaryOS 8.1.

However, since the update, the app GUI no longer shows minimise/close buttons next to the title bar on ElementaryOS. Other apps still have them on my ElementaryOS systems (see attached image). I can confirm that my Ubuntu systems also still display the buttons in the app GUI.

The MullvadVPN team commented as follows:

It looks like this behavior is due to ElementaryOS' recent switch to use Wayland and that the Mullvad VPN app can now run under Wayland, if a present session is detected.

Electron, which the Desktop app uses, has support to run under Wayland. However, window decorations (such as the close button) are only added when Electron detects that the compositor does not support the XDG decoration protocol, because then the expectation seems to be that it is the compositor task to add them. I have not checked but this is likely the case for Gala, which ElemantaryOS uses as its compositor.

ElementaryOS is not a distribution we officially support and its compositor, Gala, is not used in many (any?) other distributions either so unfortunately the only advice I have is to run the app under X11 if possible and reporting this issue to ElementaryOS, because this would likely affect several other Electron apps, not just the Mullvad VPN app.

To run the app under X11 you can either start an X11 session, or using XWayland by starting the app from command line with the --ozone-platform=x11 argument.

I already thank you for any assistance with the issue!

Steps to Reproduce

1. Update Mullvad VPN on ElementaryOS 8.1 via CLI
2. Open Mullvad VPN GUI on ElementaryOS 8.1 in a Secure Session.

Expected Behavior

Have minimise/close buttons next to the title bar on ElementaryOS 8.1.

OS Version

8.x (Circe)

OS Architecture

amd64 (on most hardwares)

Session Type

Secure Session (Wayland, This is the default)

Software Version

Latest release (I have run all updates)

Log Output

Hardware Info

All my Starlabs laptops.

[Le0-7n]

Hi! I wanted to add that this is not just Mullvad VPN. In my experience, 1password and Drawio have the same issue. I am sure there are other Electron apps that we are not personally using.

The 1password support team gave a similar explanation and suggested the same workaround in https://www.1password.community/discussions/1password/1password-on-linux-missing-window-mgmt-controls/16616:

On elementary OS this behaviour is caused by an upstream limitation with Electron on Linux rather than a bug specific to 1Password. Native GTK applications work normally because they let the operating system draw the window title bar and controls (close, minimize, maximize). Electron apps, including 1Password, draw their own title bar and controls inside the app window instead (“client-side”window decorations).
Eelementary OS does not fully support Electron’s approach to drawing its own window controls, particularly when running under Wayland, which can result in the controls not appearing at all. Electron documents that on Linux the responsibility for window controls is shared between the application and the desktop environment, which can lead to inconsistent behaviour across different window managers. This limitation is discussed directly in Electron’s issue tracker here: electron/electron#44540
As a workaround, forcing 1Password to run using X11 by running this command in Terminal: 1password --ozone-platform=x11 causes elementary OS to draw the window controls itself again, which restores the Closebutton (top left) and toggle between full screen (maximised) and windowed mode button (in the top right). You can also right click the menubar or tap Alt+Space on your keyboard to open additional settings from the menu that appears including Resize, Maximise or Hide, which may help workaround the limitation.

I had a look at the closed issues of this repo and found this thread: #2726. It seems that it would take a lot of effort to fix the issue.