A few HiDPI tricks for Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: A few HiDPI tricks for Linux

#11

Post by sammorrowdrums » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 7:21 PM UTC

SweetestRug wrote: post #4

I set up Linux on a Dell XPS 13 with the HiDPI screen. With both Ubuntu and Manjaro it was relatively painless, especially using GNOME via Wayland. i3 and sway also worked well too. I had heard a lot of issues with Linux and HiDPI, and was worried I would have to return/swap for a FHD screen, but everything has worked almost flawlessly.

My only issue is that my mid sized 4k screen is a but clunky at 2x UI scaling but otherwise I don't have an issue until I plug into a standard Monitor when 2x scaling is ridiculous.

But I find 1x scaling to be too small to enjoy on the QHD screen. Multiple integer scale factors are possible but it is a bit complex and when I did it machine was prone to crash...

That said I still love it.

Re: A few HiDPI tricks for Linux

#12

Post by microtonal » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 7:24 PM UTC

sitzkrieg wrote: post #6

what an incredible waste of time. messing with dpi, crappy apps taking from here and there in 2021. linux desktop userspace is a dumpster fire

The problem is largely X11. Wayland desktops such as GNOME + Wayland applications generally work very well with HiDPI.

Even X11 applications work reasonably well on XWayland on e.g. GNOME, as long as all screens use 100% or 200% scaling. Unfortunately, with fractional scaling things break down with X11 applications.

Re: A few HiDPI tricks for Linux

#13

Post by leephillips » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 7:36 PM UTC

I have a 2013 Chrome Pixel, with 240 dpi, and I’ve also found that the Xft.dpi setting takes care of nearly everything, although there are some interface elements in some applications that still display tiny type. The author seems to be suggesting that 163 DPI is high resolution; is it commonly understood to be so? Because that would look a bit fuzzy to me.

Re: A few HiDPI tricks for Linux

#14

Post by boatsie » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 7:53 PM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #10

SweetestRug wrote: post #4

I set up Linux on a Dell XPS 13 with the HiDPI screen. With both Ubuntu and Manjaro it was relatively painless, especially using GNOME via Wayland. i3 and sway also worked well too. I had heard a lot of issues with Linux and HiDPI, and was worried I would have to return/swap for a FHD screen, but everything has worked almost flawlessly.

I have used a 4k screen for several years now without any issues on GNOME with 200% scaling. However, I recently bought a ThinkPad T14 with a 1080p screen. With 100% scaling, the fonts and widgets are too small. The ideal scaling seems to be 125% or 150%. GNOME has experimental support for fractional scaling. This works generally ok for Wayland applications, but windows of X11 applications are incredibly blurry both…

I have a similar problem with a QHD screen that I want 150% scaling. The worst part is that using the experimental scaling is it seems to consume a lot more cpu usage and thus power on my laptop.

Re: A few HiDPI tricks for Linux

#15

Post by gtirloni » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 8:02 PM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #12

sitzkrieg wrote: post #6

what an incredible waste of time. messing with dpi, crappy apps taking from here and there in 2021. linux desktop userspace is a dumpster fire

The problem is largely X11. Wayland desktops such as GNOME + Wayland applications generally work very well with HiDPI. Even X11 applications work reasonably well on XWayland on e.g. GNOME, as long as all screens use 100% or 200% scaling. Unfortunately, with fractional scaling things break down with X11 applications.

Indeed. I'm running my 4k monitor at 100% and just increase the fonts in the apps themselves. It seems to work fine and there's no scaling involved.

Re: A few HiDPI tricks for Linux

#16

Post by Tepix » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 8:06 PM UTC

Not related to HiDPI, but looking at the picture of his monitor setup:

From an ergonomics standpoint (i.e. the health of your neck), the upper edge of your monitor shouldn't be higher than your eye level. Looking straight or looking down is fine.

Thus the monitor on the left is probably not very ergonomic.

Re: A few HiDPI tricks for Linux

#17

Post by xolve » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 8:11 PM UTC

I am using Retina display on which everything looks tiny. I struggled with setting up QT scaling, GTK3.0 scaling, icon sizes, font DPI and resolutions. The problem is there is no single setting which all UI libraries follow and this makes your life hell.

Even worse is when you connect an external monitor which is not HiDPI and now everything is bigger than usual.

Instead scale the whole display and this works perfectly. I have explained it here: https://np.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/4c2o4p/what_... (Except one hiccup, but its way better than tuning inidividual knobs)

I have added the command to /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc so it scales automatically when I login:

xrandr --output eDP1 --scale 0.60x0.60

Re: A few HiDPI tricks for Linux

#18

Post by woodruffw » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 8:16 PM UTC

Tepix wrote: post #16

Not related to HiDPI, but looking at the picture of his monitor setup: From an ergonomics standpoint (i.e. the health of your neck), the upper edge of your monitor shouldn't be higher than your eye level. Looking straight or looking down is fine. Thus the monitor on the left is probably not very ergonomic.

Author here: you’re absolutely right. My previous vertical monitor was a lot shorter; this one has definitely not been great for my neck. I’ll probably switch it back to horizontal at some point.

Re: A few HiDPI tricks for Linux

#19

Post by libcg » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 8:25 PM UTC

This article makes it seem like these steps are necessary for most Linux setups, when in reality you can do per monitor fractional scaling from a GUI as long as you're using GNOME on Wayland. No need to fiddle with per app settings, it works transparently.

Re: A few HiDPI tricks for Linux

#20

Post by azinman2 » Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 8:29 PM UTC

libcg wrote: post #19

This article makes it seem like these steps are necessary for most Linux setups, when in reality you can do per monitor fractional scaling from a GUI as long as you're using GNOME on Wayland. No need to fiddle with per app settings, it works transparently.

Except the author is using X11 as many people will. And what this shows is how many different environments / toolkits / settings there are out there. It would be nice if distributions would do a better job of handling this for you. I’ve run into the same issues myself, and it’s kind of hard to believe that I even had to figure out these configuration dpi settings in 2021.