Ubuntu – Display scaling option gone after 18.04 update

displayscaling

I am running Ubuntu 18.04.2 under VMWare Fusion on a macbook pro.

It just downloaded an update, and, after it rebooted, the display was no longer scaling and the scaling option had disappeared from the display settings.

I was able to set the scaling again using xrandr, but I have to set it every time after a restart…

I tried following the directions here, but it is not working:
https://www.valhalla.fr/2018/07/14/hidpi-on-gnome-desktop/

Does anyone know what happened to the scaling option in the GUI and how I can get it back?

Here's a screenshot of what I am now seeing

Best Answer

You can try this command

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface scaling-factor 2

Then restart your system.

I am also on mac but I am using Parallel Desktop. There is a scaling and more space option available in parallels graphics settings. After this command whenever I change to scale and then back to more space, I get 200% scaled desktop.

Although also in this you will have to do it every time you open ubuntu but no restarting is required.

You can also try this in VMWare Fusion

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Enable fractional scaling for Ubuntu 18.04

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface text-scaling-factor 1.2

This command does not change display scaling. It's just a little text-scaling trick for solving the HiDPI problem on Ubuntu. Still looking for the perfect solution.

Ubuntu – Changing UI scaling from command line

Tl;Dr:
sed -i -e '/<scale>/ s/1/2/' ~/.config/monitors.xml && sudo systemctl restart gdm

Mutter does listen to some settings in Gsettings, and after looking at the code, there is some legacy gsettings support for deprecated settings like gsettings ui-scaling-factor. For other things, it supports using XML for configuration. You'll probably need to Alt+F2, r to restart gnome-shell for settings to apply... or figure out the dbus details from the code.

Here is my config for an old monitor... notice the line... easy to sed

~/.config/monitors.xml
<monitors version="2">
  <configuration>
    <logicalmonitor>
      <x>0</x>
      <y>0</y>
      <scale>1</scale>
      <primary>yes</primary>
      <transform>
        <rotation>upside_down</rotation>
        <flipped>no</flipped>
      </transform>
      <monitor>
        <monitorspec>
          <connector>HDMI-1</connector>
          <vendor>ACR</vendor>
          <product>V226HQL</product>
          <serial>T0WAA0072442</serial>
        </monitorspec>
        <mode>
          <width>1920</width>
          <height>1080</height>
          <rate>60</rate>
        </mode>
      </monitor>
    </logicalmonitor>
  </configuration>

I put together the codes above to do 200x. It works on wayland and X, but will log you out. If you can do ALt+F2,r, that would obviously be better... I tried doing it with a terminal command and just kept crashing gnome. Might use Robot.js or xdotool to send a restart command... like this

xdotool keydown alt && sleep 1 && xdotool key F2 keyup alt && sleep 1 && xdotool key r && sleep 1 && xdotool key KP_Enter

My full version for X11 swap-res.sh... this works on an ubuntu keyboard shortcut too

#!/bin/bash
File=~/.config/monitors.xml
if grep -q "<scale>1" "$File"; then
  sed -i -e '/<scale>1/ s/1/3/' "$File"
else
  sed -i -e '/<scale>3/ s/3/1/' "$File"
fi

# Unix Utils
xdotool keydown alt && sleep 1 && xdotool key F2 keyup alt \
  && sleep 1 && xdotool key r key KP_Enter

Source: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/ (quite literally, leave a star!)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Enable fractional scaling for Ubuntu 18.04

Ubuntu – Changing UI scaling from command line

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