1. install virt-manager

  2. create a vm pop-os

  3. start the vm

  4. sudo apt install cosmic-session

  5. sudo nano /etc/gdm3/custom.conf

  6. … set … WaylandEnable=true

  7. reboot

  8. at the log in screen, there is a small gear wheel on the bottom right side, choose “Pop on Wayland" (edit: if you want COSMIC DE to work too, see update below) (edit2: if you can’t see the gear wheel, see update2 below)

.

update:

there are some settings on the virt-manager to make COSMIC DE works.

if you don’t need to run COSMIC DE, can ignore the following

  • Display Spice : Type = Spice server, Listen type = none, uncheck password / opengl
  • Video : use QXL (instead of default Virtio)

new step 8. at the log in screen, there is a small gear wheel on the bottom right side, choose “COSMIC"

.

update2:

  • sudo nano /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/61-gdm.rules

  • Goto the line that reads LABEL="gdm_prefer_xorg"

  • … commend out the next line … #RUN+="/usr/libexec/gdm-runtime-config set daemon PreferredDisplayServer xorg"

  • Goto the the line that reads LABEL="gdm_disable_wayland"

  • … commend out the next line … #RUN+="/usr/libexec/gdm-runtime-config set daemon WaylandEnable false"

  • sudo systemctl restart gdm.service