diff --git a/kick.c b/kick.c
index b67b1ef..f8e2d4d 100644
--- a/kick.c
+++ b/kick.c
@@ -12073,8 +12073,12 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
        EPIPE once the signal is out of the way. */
     signal(SIGPIPE, SIG_IGN);
 
-    /* wlroots logs follow KICK_LOG: quiet keeps only errors, info drops
-       protocol noise, debug shows everything. */
+    /* wlroots logs follow KICK_LOG: quiet silences everything, info drops
+       protocol noise, debug shows everything.  Quiet must be SILENT, not
+       ERROR: wlroots only redirects Xwayland's stderr (xkbcomp warnings)
+       when verbosity is below ERROR, and the xwm xcb errors are routine
+       non-fatal noise.  Kick's own fatal errors use fprintf directly, so
+       they still show when quiet. */
     switch (kick_log_level()) {
     case KICK_LOG_DEBUG:
         wlr_log_init(WLR_DEBUG, NULL);
@@ -12083,7 +12087,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
         wlr_log_init(WLR_INFO, NULL);
         break;
     default:
-        wlr_log_init(WLR_ERROR, NULL);
+        wlr_log_init(WLR_SILENT, NULL);
         break;
     }