Hi-resolution problems #3108

rootkovska · Sep 21, 2017

On hires display, All AppVMs have incorrectly set "magnification", making them display super-large fonts and other UI elements. Surprisingly this is not the case for the actual template. This can be observed e.g. on gnome-terminal or Firefox.

Interestingly the sys-net has correct scaling, but sys-usb does not. This might be related to #3107? Perhaps this is a result of Salt stack not applying some configuration to some of the VMs?

Salt by default do not apply any VM configuration. This automatic scaling is intended feature of GNOME, gnome-settings-daemon namely. See here: https://wiki.gnome.org/HowDoI/HiDpi

Interestingly it isn't started automatically in some VMs. Not sure why...

marmarek · Sep 21, 2017

Salt by default do not apply any VM configuration. This automatic scaling is intended feature of GNOME, gnome-settings-daemon namely. See here: https://wiki.gnome.org/HowDoI/HiDpi

Interestingly it isn't started automatically in some VMs. Not sure why...

Anyway, I'd say that better default is to have this automatic scaling working everywhere, instead of requiring some users to use physical magnification glass to setup their system... GNOME team do have UI experts and I'd assume they did this for a reason.
The only "problem" on Qubes is that if you want to change that (see that wiki page), you need to do that in every VM.

FWIW, with this magnification enabled, in default settings (12px font size), fullscreen terminal can fit 176x46 chars, which is slightly more than similar window on non-HiDPI laptop (154x44).

marmarek · Sep 21, 2017

Anyway, I'd say that better default is to have this automatic scaling working everywhere, instead of requiring some users to use physical magnification glass to setup their system... GNOME team do have UI experts and I'd assume they did this for a reason.
The only "problem" on Qubes is that if you want to change that (see that wiki page), you need to do that in every VM.

FWIW, with this magnification enabled, in default settings (12px font size), fullscreen terminal can fit 176x46 chars, which is slightly more than similar window on non-HiDPI laptop (154x44).

The magnification is def. too large, but I can see how this is a matter of personal taste, however we still have 2 Qubes-specific (related, but distinct) problems:

That, out of the box, some of the VMs got the scaling applies while other do not (templates, sys-net),
That there is no mechanism to let the user consistently adjust it for all the VMs.
Of course if we solved #2, we could fix #1.

rootkovska · Sep 22, 2017

The magnification is def. too large, but I can see how this is a matter of personal taste, however we still have 2 Qubes-specific (related, but distinct) problems:

That, out of the box, some of the VMs got the scaling applies while other do not (templates, sys-net),
That there is no mechanism to let the user consistently adjust it for all the VMs.
Of course if we solved #2, we could fix #1.

I see a couple ways to solve point 2:

use salt to adjust appropriate gsettings key
add a VM startup script, that will adjust it based on setting exposed by dom0 in QubesDB

The first one makes it compatible with other tools (gnome-tweak-tool for example), but require every VM to be started when changing the setting. The second one will work "offline", but will override custom value set by the user, at every VM startup.

As for point 1 - this isn't about setting some value or not. It is about gnome-settings-daemon not being started. If you start it, it will automatically calculate scaling factor (if not set manually). It is set to start only in AppVM (/etc/qubes/autostart/gnome-settings-daemon.desktop.d/30_qubes.conf). Which apparently is wrong. So, the point 1 is easy to fix.

marmarek · Sep 22, 2017

I see a couple ways to solve point 2:

use salt to adjust appropriate gsettings key
add a VM startup script, that will adjust it based on setting exposed by dom0 in QubesDB

The first one makes it compatible with other tools (gnome-tweak-tool for example), but require every VM to be started when changing the setting. The second one will work "offline", but will override custom value set by the user, at every VM startup.

As for point 1 - this isn't about setting some value or not. It is about gnome-settings-daemon not being started. If you start it, it will automatically calculate scaling factor (if not set manually). It is set to start only in AppVM (/etc/qubes/autostart/gnome-settings-daemon.desktop.d/30_qubes.conf). Which apparently is wrong. So, the point 1 is easy to fix.

Maybe we should do the same in dom0, then propagate this setting into VMs (using approach in point 2)?

marmarek · Sep 22, 2017

Maybe we should do the same in dom0, then propagate this setting into VMs (using approach in point 2)?

I've tried to set xfce for hidpi (according to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI#Xfce) - fonts dpi 192, max icon size 48, and "Default-hidpi" window manager theme (according to https://xfce.org/about/tour).
Personally I think this looks ugly. Some issues:

window titles do not fit on buttons (on the panel) anymore, even though there is a plenty of unused space on the panel.
checkboxes, radio buttons and other such elements are still tiny
in some places buttons description do not fit in widgets (widgets, entry boxes etc), see for example power manager, system tab

I don't see a direct equivalent of GNOME's Gdk/WindowScalingFactor in Xfce.

marmarek · Sep 22, 2017

I've tried to set xfce for hidpi (according to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI#Xfce) - fonts dpi 192, max icon size 48, and "Default-hidpi" window manager theme (according to https://xfce.org/about/tour).
Personally I think this looks ugly. Some issues:

window titles do not fit on buttons (on the panel) anymore, even though there is a plenty of unused space on the panel.
checkboxes, radio buttons and other such elements are still tiny
in some places buttons description do not fit in widgets (widgets, entry boxes etc), see for example power manager, system tab

I don't see a direct equivalent of GNOME's Gdk/WindowScalingFactor in Xfce.

If Xfce4 doesn't handle scaling factors well, then I think we should:

Use the scaling factor=1 for all the VMs (to keep UI look consistent between the GUI domain and VMs),
Allow the users to easily change the scaling factor for all the VMs easily, if they feel the need for this.

An alternative solution is to scale down the resolution to something less than the full 4k (but still larger than HD). This option works really well for me on Qubes 3.2, and it requires all the VMs and GUI domain to consitently use scaling factor=1.

rootkovska · Sep 22, 2017

If Xfce4 doesn't handle scaling factors well, then I think we should:

Use the scaling factor=1 for all the VMs (to keep UI look consistent between the GUI domain and VMs),
Allow the users to easily change the scaling factor for all the VMs easily, if they feel the need for this.

An alternative solution is to scale down the resolution to something less than the full 4k (but still larger than HD). This option works really well for me on Qubes 3.2, and it requires all the VMs and GUI domain to consitently use scaling factor=1.

This is BTW, how does Firefox looks in the default install of 4.0 on a hires system. UGLY!

rootkovska · Sep 22, 2017

This is BTW, how does Firefox looks in the default install of 4.0 on a hires system. UGLY!

Hi, just as an additional data point: I have a 4k display but I don't want any scaling whatsoever, the display is big enough physically. (I do use ctrl+- quite a lot.) This usecase should also be supported.

…

-- cheers, Holger

h01ger · Sep 22, 2017

Hi, just as an additional data point: I have a 4k display but I don't want any scaling whatsoever, the display is big enough physically. (I do use ctrl+- quite a lot.) This usecase should also be supported.

…

-- cheers, Holger

@h01ger the GNOME automatic scaling is about DPI, not resolution itself. So it should be ok.
@rootkovska what resolution would you suggest?

marmarek · Sep 22, 2017

@h01ger the GNOME automatic scaling is about DPI, not resolution itself. So it should be ok.
@rootkovska what resolution would you suggest?

Generally I suggest to leave scaling factor = 1...

rootkovska · Sep 24, 2017

Generally I suggest to leave scaling factor = 1...

@rootkovska If the application is closed and reopened on a HiRes display, the scaling issues fix themselves on 4.0 RC1. At least that is the case on a Surface Book.

mex20 · Oct 11, 2017

@rootkovska If the application is closed and reopened on a HiRes display, the scaling issues fix themselves on 4.0 RC1. At least that is the case on a Surface Book.

@mex20: no it still sucks, even though admittedly the factor gets smaller then. Yet it is still inconsistent (e.g. templates and e.g. sys-net get scaling factor 1, while other VMs get much larger), and generally looks very messy and ugly :(

rootkovska · Oct 23, 2017

@mex20: no it still sucks, even though admittedly the factor gets smaller then. Yet it is still inconsistent (e.g. templates and e.g. sys-net get scaling factor 1, while other VMs get much larger), and generally looks very messy and ugly :(

FWIW I experience this issue in fedora-derived AppVMs but not in debian-derived ones (just upgraded to 4.0rc3)

mveytsman · Nov 28, 2017

FWIW I experience this issue in fedora-derived AppVMs but not in debian-derived ones (just upgraded to 4.0rc3)

I can simulate this by starting a disposable fedora VM with firefox (tabs takes up quite a lot of screen area). This is through the qubes menu.
If I start firefox with qvm-run --dispvm fedora-25-dvm firefox, the DPI is better.

I figured those two approaches would be exactly the same?

isodude · Dec 6, 2017

I can simulate this by starting a disposable fedora VM with firefox (tabs takes up quite a lot of screen area). This is through the qubes menu.
If I start firefox with qvm-run --dispvm fedora-25-dvm firefox, the DPI is better.

I figured those two approaches would be exactly the same?

Ok, I've got it even worse:

Lets disable this...

marmarek · Dec 16, 2017

Ok, I've got it even worse:

Lets disable this...

I had this problem, and found a solution!

Do this in your Fedora TemplateVM, as root:

Create /etc/dconf/db/local.d/dpi with the following contents:
```
[org/gnome/desktop/interface]
scaling-factor=uint32 1
```
Create /etc/dconf/profile/user with the following contents:
```
user-db:user
system-db:local
```
Run dconf update.

alyssais · Dec 16, 2017

I had this problem, and found a solution!

Do this in your Fedora TemplateVM, as root:

Create /etc/dconf/db/local.d/dpi with the following contents:
```
[org/gnome/desktop/interface]
scaling-factor=uint32 1
```
Create /etc/dconf/profile/user with the following contents:
```
user-db:user
system-db:local
```
Run dconf update.

I can confirm that this does the trick on my T470p. 👍

isodude · Dec 16, 2017

I can confirm that this does the trick on my T470p. 👍

After updating my AppVMs to the Fedora 26 template, everything was too small to read for me. I was able to fix it by adding a file /etc/xdg/autostart/gsettings.desktop to my Fedora 26 template VM:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=gnome-settings-daemon
Exec=/usr/libexec/gsd-xsettings
Terminal=false
Type=Application
X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=Initialization

talex5 · Dec 24, 2017

After updating my AppVMs to the Fedora 26 template, everything was too small to read for me. I was able to fix it by adding a file /etc/xdg/autostart/gsettings.desktop to my Fedora 26 template VM:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=gnome-settings-daemon
Exec=/usr/libexec/gsd-xsettings
Terminal=false
Type=Application
X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=Initialization

@talex5 as you can see in this thread, many people complains about this automatic scaling...

marmarek · Dec 25, 2017

@talex5 as you can see in this thread, many people complains about this automatic scaling...

I am running Q4 on a high resolution screen and I just set /etc/X11/Xresources Xft.dpi: 200 in my template vms and it's been smooth sailing since (as far as scaling goes).

I see that in dom0 I set it using the settings manager in:
xsettings > Xft > DPI

I could probably have set it in etc as well for consistency, I suppose the effect would have been the same.

najamelan · Dec 28, 2017

I am running Q4 on a high resolution screen and I just set /etc/X11/Xresources Xft.dpi: 200 in my template vms and it's been smooth sailing since (as far as scaling goes).

I see that in dom0 I set it using the settings manager in:
xsettings > Xft > DPI

I could probably have set it in etc as well for consistency, I suppose the effect would have been the same.

Automated announcement from builder-github

The package core-agent-linux has been pushed to the r4.0 testing repository for the CentOS centos7 template.
To test this update, please install it with the following command:

sudo yum update --enablerepo=qubes-vm-r4.0-current-testing

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Hi-resolution problems #3108

Comments

rootkovska commented Sep 21, 2017

rootkovska added bug C: desktop-linux C: mgmt P: major labels Sep 21, 2017

rootkovska added this to the Release 4.0 milestone Sep 21, 2017

rootkovska assigned marmarek Sep 21, 2017

rootkovska changed the title from Hires problems to Hi-resolution problems Sep 21, 2017

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mveytsman commented Nov 28, 2017 •

edited

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