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How can I get my display scale below 1 (100%)?

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How can I get my display scale below 1 (100%)?

Post by NickMint » Sun Dec 29, 2019 11:10 am

Hello guys. How can I set my Display scale below 1? I tried with xrandr but it says «failed to parse 0.9 as a scaling factor» (can’t set below 1). Is there any way to set it below 1? I’m using the default display drivers (open-source)

Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How can I get my display scale below 1 (100%)?

Post by trytip » Sun Dec 29, 2019 11:27 am

works fine here the lowest you can go is 0.5 but you could probably go even lower if you set the correct font sizes. why you’d want such small fonts when most of us want them larger is escaping me right now.

why are you trying to use xrandr? we are not in 1998 this is 2020

Re: How can I get my display scale below 1 (100%)?

Post by NickMint » Sun Dec 29, 2019 11:58 am

Re: How can I get my display scale below 1 (100%)?

Post by Hoser Rob » Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:00 pm

trytip wrote: ⤴ Sun Dec 29, 2019 11:27 am . why are you trying to use xrandr? we are not in 1998 this is 2020 .

Kinda what I was thinking. You need to post more info, copy/paste the text output of inxi -Fxz run in the terminal.

Granularity with video often seems to haves something to do with the drivers and/or the age of the card.

Re: How can I get my display scale below 1 (100%)?

Post by NickMint » Sun Dec 29, 2019 1:47 pm

System: Host: nentor Kernel: 5.0.0-32-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.4.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.4.5 Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic Machine: Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20217 v: Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P serial: Mobo: LENOVO model: VIQY0Y1 serial: UEFI: LENOVO v: 74CN44WW(V3.05) date: 09/18/2013 Battery: ID-1: BAT1 charge: 53.0 Wh condition: 53.0/56.4 Wh (94%) model: LENOVO PABAS0241231 status: Full CPU: Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-4700MQ bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Haswell rev: 3 L2 cache: 6144 KiB flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 38309 Speed: 1377 MHz min/max: 800/3400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1617 2: 1505 3: 1509 4: 1514 5: 1546 6: 1627 7: 1542 8: 1611 Graphics: Device-1: NVIDIA GK107M [GeForce GT 755M] vendor: Lenovo driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 Device-2: NVIDIA GK107M [GeForce GT 755M] vendor: Lenovo driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 07:00.0 Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa tty: N/A OpenGL: renderer: NVE7 v: 4.3 Mesa 19.0.8 direct render: Yes Audio: Device-1: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 Device-2: NVIDIA GK107 HDMI Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.0.0-32-generic Network: Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8171 Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Lenovo driver: alx v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 08:00.0 IF: enp8s0 state: down mac: Device-2: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 09:00.0 IF: wlp9s0 state: up mac: Drives: Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 7.19 GiB (0.8%) ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LM014-SSHD-8GB size: 931.51 GiB Partition: ID-1: / size: 100.18 GiB used: 7.16 GiB (7.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7 ID-2: swap-1 size: 14.90 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda6 Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0 C mobo: N/A Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A GPU: device: nouveau temp: 40 C device: nouveau temp: 49 C Info: Processes: 242 Uptime: 2m Memory: 15.61 GiB used: 1.28 GiB (8.2%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.4.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.20 inxi: 3.0.32 

That’s the output. I’m using the default open-source graphics drivers. Also, I’m using an external monitor (ASUS VP249HE) and not the laptop’s display. I managed to get my monitor to run in 75Hz by using xrandr:

xrandr --output VGA-1 --mode 1920x1080 --rate 75

I also found a way to downscale with xrandr but everything gets blurry (and it gets reset every time I shut down the laptop). Is there a better way to downscale?

Re: How can I get my display scale below 1 (100%)?

Post by trytip » Sun Dec 29, 2019 4:45 pm

NickMint wrote: ⤴ Sun Dec 29, 2019 1:47 pm That’s the output. I’m using the default open-source graphics drivers. Also, I’m using an external monitor (ASUS VP249HE) and not the laptop’s display. I managed to get my monitor to run in 75Hz by using xrandr:

xrandr --output VGA-1 --mode 1920x1080 --rate 75

I also found a way to downscale with xrandr but everything gets blurry (and it gets reset every time I shut down the laptop). Is there a better way to downscale?

downscale what? every aspect has different sizes. qt apps use one setting, gtk2 another, gtk3 yet another and now gtk4 comes in to play as will as plasma and kde elements.
if you mean one click and everything magically is what you want, that’s in an alternate universe where developers and users are on the same page. wait till you see what the new gnome desktop brings and how many changes they have made making all out themes and scripts obsolete.

you still are not specific enough.

Re: How can I get my display scale below 1 (100%)?

Post by NickMint » Sun Dec 29, 2019 5:22 pm

NickMint wrote: ⤴ Sun Dec 29, 2019 1:47 pm That’s the output. I’m using the default open-source graphics drivers. Also, I’m using an external monitor (ASUS VP249HE) and not the laptop’s display. I managed to get my monitor to run in 75Hz by using xrandr:

xrandr --output VGA-1 --mode 1920x1080 --rate 75

I also found a way to downscale with xrandr but everything gets blurry (and it gets reset every time I shut down the laptop). Is there a better way to downscale?

downscale what? every aspect has different sizes. qt apps use one setting, gtk2 another, gtk3 yet another and now gtk4 comes in to play as will as plasma and kde elements.
if you mean one click and everything magically is what you want, that’s in an alternate universe where developers and users are on the same page. wait till you see what the new gnome desktop brings and how many changes they have made making all out themes and scripts obsolete.

you still are not specific enough.

I want to downscale the applications’ windows, the desktop icons, the fonts in every application and the start menu. I want to accomplish the effect of xrandr with the scaling option of 1.2×1.2 but without compromising picture quality.

Источник

Linux mint scaling display

A couple of weeks back, I tried Linux Mint 20.2 Uma on my IdeaPad 3 laptop; ’tis a typical modern device, with a full HD resolution display stretched over a rather modest equity of about 14 inches. The test and the review were not that successful, mostly for various hardware-related reasons, but also partly because I struggled getting Mint to render correctly (ergonomically) on my FHD screen.

I tried using the built-in Display setting option, I tried font scaling, I manually made changes to the panel, but in the end, I wasn’t that happy. Too many actions, not enough cohesion. There was no one-button solution for me. As it happens, in 2021, the only desktop environment that does scaling well is Plasma, and I’m including Windows into this equation. But that’s not why we’re here. I actually want to show you what you can do when it comes to HD scaling in Mint’s Cinnamon desktop. Let’s do it.

Under the hood, GTK

As I’ve already shown you in my theming tutorials for Gnome and MATE, there is a great deal of similarity among many different Linux desktop environments, as they share the same common features and tech stack. The same applies to Cinnamon, as it happens. Now, why is this relevant? Because when you want to do HD scaling, the same capabilities and limitations come to bear.

Remember my Uma review? For some reason, early on, the screen refresh rate was 77 Hz. Go figure.

For instance, by default, the Gnome desktop environment only lets you do either normal or 200% scale, which works for 4K devices, but not really for anything in between. Lo and behold, if you look in Mint settings, it’s the same thing. But wait. Gnome supports fractional scaling, as an experimental feature. And so does Cinnamon!

I want 125%

In the Display section, if you click on Settings, you can activate fractional scaling. Alas, it won’t be available right away. The fractional scaling button option will show now, but it won’t be active. You have to restart the desktop shell, or log out and then back in.

Once I did that, I could now use values in between 100% and 200%, and even less than 100%. What I found confusing is the mention of the «virtual» resolution that this kind of thing would offer. Which is not how it should be! The resolution needs not change, only the rendering of elements on top of it!

This reminds me of the problems I encountered in Xfce, like say MX Linux MX-21. With xrandr there, you get supposedly scaled up desktops, but this only reduces the resolution and creates a washed, blurry display. And as it happens, with Cinnamon, you get the same result.

Unfortunately, you cannot see the blurring in the screenshot, because it comes in 1:1 scale, which does not reflect how such an image shows on screen.

What makes the exercise even more frustrating is that I did use fractional scaling in Gnome in AlmaLinux, and there, the results were actually quite decent. The UI was bigger, but there was no blurriness. There was no effect of lost quality as would happen if you say zoom in on a photo. However, with Xfce and now Cinnamon, the fractional scaling change was quite rough.

To see whether I could make the display crisp, I also tried a few other tricks:

• Use a lower screen resolution than FHD — with 1280x720p, the size was ok, the blurring was less, but it was still suboptimal.
• Lower resolution and downscaling — 74% (for some reason), and then 75%, but this didn’t help.
• Higher resolution and upscaling — same as above.
• Fractional scaling and font scaling, but the clarity was never sharp.

Using 1280x720px feels so 2009.

This would be the ideal size, alas blurry. Again, you cannot see that in the screenshot.

Now, the sad part is that Cinnamon doesn’t really have a built-in provision for small/HD scenarios. If you use font scaling, that works beautifully. But then, the system menu, the panel, the system tray, and the window borders don’t change. You end up with small elements that create an even more jarring effect. In the past, Mint used to have so-called Big Button (BB) themes, which offered bigger, more grabbable window decorations, but I couldn’t find those. And no matter what I did, the system tray refused to change.

Conclusion

Well, I must say I am a bit disappointed with my exercise. I had hoped I could have a well-scaled and clear display, but this wasn’t meant to be. I can have one or the other, but not both at the same time. Font scaling works well in Cinnamon, but various theming elements just never change. Even if you increase the icon size for panel items (there’s an option for that), the system area ones never do. And the window button controls are just too small for comfort.

Please do remember that Cinnamon does disclaim the fractional scaling functionality. Yes, it is experimental. But considering we’ve had FHD 13-inch and 14-inch laptops around for years, plus the fact Plasma can do all of this without any great fussing, plus the fact the same fractional scaling option offers better results in stock Gnome, this isn’t a good outcome overall. Anyway, for now, your best bet is font scaling. Hopefully, these issues will be ironed out soon, because I would like to try using Mint beyond my initial test, to see how it fares in day-to-day scenarios. But at the moment, it’s not ergonomically robust enough. The article ends here.

Источник