[SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

r0b0t · 2015-03-27 20:47:36

I got a new laptop and of course the first thing I must put on it it's Arch Linux.

It's an Asus N551 and EXTREAMLY WEIRD but everything went fine, I mean everything worked without me doing anything to fix up stuff (yes I had to install bumblebee) but everything, sound, touchpad, graphics, networking, etc just required installing the driver and that's it.

Now the problem is with the display,

 xdpyinfo | grep -B2 resolution
screen #0:
  dimensions:    1920x1080 pixels (508x285 millimeters)
  resolution:    96x96 dots per inch

The resolution is as you see but everything else it's really small and I think I will become blind if I don't fix this.
I'm currently using the intel graphic card.

I read 2-3 topics similar to mine but without any understandble resolution and beeing very old I thought it's better to open a new one.

Thanks.

SOLUTION:
---------------------------------------
1) Find out your Screen ID (It should show "connected" and "allot of available displays")

]$ xrandr 
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 32767 x 32767
eDP1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 345mm x 194mm
   1920x1080     60.02*+
   1400x1050     59.98  
   1280x1024     60.02  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1024x768      60.00  
   800x600       60.32    56.25  
   640x480       59.94  
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

So Mine is eDP1

2) Find your screen size in mm
In my case intel and xdpyinfo reported the wrong value, so the right one for me was 345x194 mm

3) Find out your right DPI settings
http://dpi.lv will do this for you.

4) Apply what you found:

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-monitor.conf 
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier             "eDP1"
    DisplaySize            345 194   
    Option                 "DPI" "141 x 141"
EndSection

stop your DE and startx again
Confirm the settings were applied:

$ xdpyinfo | grep -B1 dot
  dimensions:    1920x1080 pixels (345x194 millimeters)
  resolution:    141x141 dots per inch

5) Use a DE which will not overwrite your DPI settings (So far , Gnome, Cinnamon, does it).
LXDE won't
xfce4 gives you an option to set your desired DPI so it's also OK.

6) Configure the browsers / or heavy applications NOT to ignore the system DPI settings.
(this is also a looong trail to deal with)....

BUG: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=89820

Last edited by r0b0t (2015-03-30 11:25:42)

jasonwryan · 2015-03-27 21:06:54

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xo … ze_and_DPI

r0b0t · 2015-03-27 21:33:10

I already tried setting it:

# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-monitor.conf 
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier             "<default monitor>"
    DisplaySize            286 179    # In millimeters
EndSection

As I read the wiki, but it doens't affect anything , the display is still the same 1920 x 1080
Instead I can set the DPI with xandr

I also tried step 1, 2 and 3 here : http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/877

Still no success. The new resolution does not appear on Display

Last edited by r0b0t (2015-03-27 21:38:48)

jasonwryan · 2015-03-27 21:51:19

Is that really your monitor's ID?

r0b0t · 2015-03-27 21:56:44

xrandr 
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 32767 x 32767
eDP1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 345mm x 194mm
   1920x1080     60.02*+
   1400x1050     59.98  
   1280x1024     60.02  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1024x768      60.00  
   800x600       60.32    56.25  
   640x480       59.94  
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
   1600x900_60.00  59.95  
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

I'm thinking right now that maybe the real solution would be increasing the font size on the system, however yet it's weird that it can't add another display resolution.

jasonwryan · 2015-03-27 22:07:26

It's not weird at all, your monitor's ID is clearly eDP1: what did you think you were setting in that xorg file?

r0b0t · 2015-03-27 22:19:29

Working now, it was eDP1
What's the right /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-monitor.conf in my case for a 1600x900 display?

jasonwryan · 2015-03-27 22:28:40

jasonwryan wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xo … ze_and_DPI

Please remember to mark your thread as [Solved] by editing your first post and prepending it to the title.

r0b0t · 2015-03-28 20:24:59

Sorry but it doens't look solved :
http://s29.postimg.org/49ufdnx0n/display.png

Even on 1600x900 , yes everything is definetly bigger however the character and font is very even more difficult to read.
And in my view this is not a solution, not even a work-around. Xorg correctly detects the display as a Full-HD, than the DE can't keep up with it.
Is there any chance I'd get a WM or a DE which can support the current display?

By increasing the font size of cinnamon it get's better but only partially, as mostly of what's displayed on size terms it's not covered.

jasonwryan · 2015-03-28 20:28:40

If xdyinfo is reporting the correct resolution for your display, then your issue is with fonts, not your DE...

r0b0t · 2015-03-28 20:42:33

Yep, xdyinfo is reporting the default resolution, as for the fonts I'm using the default ones (freshly installed), so I don't understand why that kind of display.
And I'd like to know why on windows it works great with the same display where on Linux it doesn't, I mean a DE or font or anything would be happy being displayed on a Full HD screen

If the issue is with the fonts, what should I do to the fonts?

jasonwryan · 2015-03-28 20:47:05

The default resolution is not the correct one, is it? http://dpi.lv/

r0b0t · 2015-03-28 21:15:17

No actually is set correctly:
$ xdpyinfo | grep -B2 resolution
screen #0:
dimensions: 1600x900 pixels (423x238 millimeters)
resolution: 96x96 dots per inch

and also dpi.lv shows 1600x900 (but it shows a 13.3" while mine is 15, it showed 13 also with Full HD resolution.
I'm trying different DE's but no joy. same issue. Gnome couldn't handle the 1600x900 display and reverted back to the default.

PS: the default detected (if I don't modify anything) is 1920x1080 (also verified with both xdpyinfo and dpi.lv / chrome

Last edited by r0b0t (2015-03-28 21:16:52)

jasonwryan · 2015-03-28 21:40:17

I can guarantee that 96x96 is not the correct resolution for a 423x238mm display... but you can work it out for yourself.

r0b0t · 2015-03-29 00:26:29

Here we go:

According to http://dpi.lv and http://pxcalc.com/ the DPI for my 1920x1080 15.6-inch is 141
My settings:

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-monitor.conf
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier             "<default monitor>"
    DisplaySize            508 285   
    Option                 "DPI" "141 x 141"
EndSection

After restartX DPI Not Applied

 xdpyinfo | grep -B2 resolution
screen #0:
  dimensions:    1920x1080 pixels (508x285 millimeters)
  resolution:    96x96 dots per inch

IF I TRY WITH Dimensions 345x194 on monitor.conf (no idea where did I get that from) DisplaySize it will apply the dpi but nothing changes on the screen (just like when I run xrandr manually and open a new application)

 xdpyinfo | grep -B2 resolution
screen #0:
  dimensions:    1920x1080 pixels (345x194 millimeters)
  resolution:    141x141 dots per inch

while xorg insists on all cases that the DPI is always 96

$ cat .local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log | grep -i dpi
	/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/,
	/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/
[    19.251] (==) intel(0): DPI set to (96, 96)

I stumbled upon https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/43947 during this research and it make sense as I'm not able to do anything with the DPI, no matter what value I set for it.

Any idea?

Last edited by r0b0t (2015-03-29 00:27:45)

jasonwryan · 2015-03-29 01:03:41

You are kidding, right?

Re-read post 4 and stop blindly copy pasting from the wiki.

To put an end to this train wreck of a thread, just add your monitor ID and leave the display size entry in the .conf file: you don't need to specify the DPI, Xorg will work it out...

r0b0t · 2015-03-29 01:51:12

I tried already eDP1 and even Screen0, that's what made me try everything out there, I'm trying desperatly to solve this like for 10 hours now, and it's not easy at least for me.
And the problem here is setting the DPI , not the resolution. Xorg wiill NOT work it out as it get's it from Intel and intel set's it as 96 (see #15) which defnietly it's not and if I set it manually it will be ignored by the system although xrandr say it was applied.

jasonwryan · 2015-03-29 03:09:20

r0b0t wrote:

I tried already eDP1 and even Screen0.

According to xrandr in your post above, it is VGA1...

brebs · 2015-03-29 08:11:53

Ah, the old & ridiculous 96 DPI problem.

It can be set in ~/.xinitrc, e.g. as the whole file:

for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/* ; do
    . "$f"
done

xrandr --fbmm 382x216

exec startxfce4

Note that the xrandr command must come *before* the "start desktop environment" line.

The DE can still stupidly enforce 96 DPI, e.g. XFCE bug and patch

r0b0t · 2015-03-29 10:19:50

Thank you both for the comments:
@jason , it's eDP1 , that's the only "connected" monitor among the disconnected ones the 1600x900 was added manually by me it was one of the many tries.

@brebs no it doesn't work

1) Xorg won't care about configuring DPI values is ignoring the config: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … bug/589485
2) Already tried with cinnamon HiDPI AND the scaling factor (although that takes care only of the Font , not of the rest so it's not a solution) https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/b … ext.c#L113 instead everything becomes to big
3) Gnome instead tries to "hardcode" it https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-sett … ager.c#n70
As they CANNOT RELY ON X SERVER for giving good DPI information (as they wrote on the reason why)
4) The screen size values are contradictory;
xrandr reports 345mm x 194mm
xdpyinfo reports (508x285 millimeters)
They both agree that the screen is 1920x1080

My thoughts on the route issue.
I think the route of the problem here is not Xorg but intel, and I say that because Xorg from year to year have change to be more "configless" (which is why it ignores setting DPI on xorg.conf.d) and it tries to configure everything directly from the graphic card driver , and instead Intel miscalculate the DPI and sets it to 96 which I think is the main issue here.

So I can say that the problem here is:
How can we tell Intel to set the correct DPI? [as waiting that from Xorg I think it's a dead end from what I'v read]
Why xrandr and xdpyinfo are conflicting each-other on Screen size in mm ?

Last edited by r0b0t (2015-03-29 10:26:08)

brebs · 2015-03-29 10:49:46

The example I gave works fine for me, and has worked fine for the last year.

I'll LOL at Gnome for having daft ideas - I suggest you try LXDE as the desktop environment, because when I last tried it (when I was creating the DPI patch for XFCE), LXDE was doing the proper thing by *not* messing with DPI settings itself.

r0b0t · 2015-03-29 11:13:46

I'm not sure I fully understood, if LXDE will not mess with DPI settings than the DPI will be kept 96 which is what's creating the problem at the moment, is that what I should look for? (I'v tried 3 different DE's so far it doesn't make any difference)
What are your thoughts on xrandr and xdpyinfo reporting different size in mm, would be that a reason of this issue?

brebs · 2015-03-29 12:04:49

There's basically 3 things necessary:

1. Get Xorg to use your desired DPI.
2. Use a DE which *doesn't* stupidly reset your DPI back to 96.
3. Make sure that heavyweight apps (e.g. browsers) which try to control the DPI themselves, have been configured to stop doing that.

xrandr and xdpyinfo reporting different size in mm

I've seen no evidence that it actually matters. What matters is the DPI returned from:

xdpyinfo | grep -B1 dot

r0b0t · 2015-03-29 12:38:04

1- Done

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-monitor.conf 
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier             "eDP1"
    DisplaySize            345 194   
    Option                 "DPI" "141 x 141"
EndSection

And confirmed by xdpyinfo
2)LXDE it is
xfce4 also work if I manually set the dpi to 141 (it supports it).

It's working now.
Will try configure "dpi-resistent" applications.

I will mark the thread as solved but should I open a bug for intel setting
1) Wrong dimension
2) Wrong DPI

?

This is what's happening: (vanilla configuration , no xorg.conf stuff, no xinitrc)

[   818.088] (II) intel(0): Using Kernel Mode Setting driver: i915, version 1.6.0 20141121
[   818.089] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
[   818.089] (WW) VGA arbiter: cannot open kernel arbiter, no multi-card support
[   818.089] (--) intel(0): Integrated Graphics Chipset: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600


------------------------ SETTING DPI WRONGLY---------------------------------------------
[   818.089] (--) intel(0): Output eDP1 using initial mode 1920x1080 on pipe 0
[   818.089] (==) intel(0): TearFree disabled
[   818.089] (==) intel(0): DPI set to (96, 96)
---------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[   818.090] (II) intel(0): SNA initialized with Haswell (gen7.5, gt2) backend
[   818.090] (==) intel(0): Backing store enabled
[   818.090] (==) intel(0): Silken mouse enabled
[   818.090] (II) intel(0): HW Cursor enabled
[   818.090] (II) intel(0): RandR 1.2 enabled, ignore the following RandR disabled message. >>>>>>>>>> WHY SHOULD I IGNORE??<<<<<<<<
[   818.090] (==) intel(0): DPMS enabled
[   818.090] (==) intel(0): display hotplug detection enabled
[   818.090] (II) intel(0): [DRI2] Setup complete
[   818.090] (II) intel(0): [DRI2]   DRI driver: i965
[   818.090] (II) intel(0): [DRI2]   VDPAU driver: i965
[   818.090] (II) intel(0): direct rendering: DRI2 enabled
[   818.090] (II) intel(0): hardware support for Present enabled
[   818.090] (--) RandR disabled 
[   818.107] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer
[   818.107] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_ARB_create_context
[   818.107] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_ARB_create_context_profile
[   818.107] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_EXT_create_context_es2_profile
[   818.107] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_INTEL_swap_event
[   818.107] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_SGI_swap_control and GLX_MESA_swap_control
[   818.107] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB
[   818.107] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_ARB_fbconfig_float
[   818.107] (II) AIGLX: GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap backed by buffer objects
[   818.107] (II) AIGLX: enabled GLX_ARB_create_context_robustness
[   818.107] (II) AIGLX: Loaded and initialized i965
[   818.107] (II) GLX: Initialized DRI2 GL provider for screen 0
[   818.109] (II) intel(0): switch to mode 1920x1080@60.0 on eDP1 using pipe 0, position (0, 0), rotation normal, reflection none
[   818.122] (II) intel(0): Setting screen physical size to 508 x 285  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> WRONG IT'S 345x194mm<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

brebs · 2015-03-29 13:11:06

141 DPI sounds to me like it's really 140 DPI, after removing a bit of rounding error. Being divisible by 10 is a good thing, for rounding in the rendering calculations. Try that, it'll probably look better (if any difference can be seen at all).

File bugs if you wish, with "upstream" - these bugs should not be filed against Arch, because they're not distro-specific.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-03-27 20:47:36

[SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#2 2015-03-27 21:06:54

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#3 2015-03-27 21:33:10

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#4 2015-03-27 21:51:19

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#5 2015-03-27 21:56:44

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#6 2015-03-27 22:07:26

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#7 2015-03-27 22:19:29

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#8 2015-03-27 22:28:40

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#9 2015-03-28 20:24:59

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#10 2015-03-28 20:28:40

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#11 2015-03-28 20:42:33

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#12 2015-03-28 20:47:05

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#13 2015-03-28 21:15:17

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#14 2015-03-28 21:40:17

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#15 2015-03-29 00:26:29

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#16 2015-03-29 01:03:41

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#17 2015-03-29 01:51:12

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#18 2015-03-29 03:09:20

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#19 2015-03-29 08:11:53

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#20 2015-03-29 10:19:50

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#21 2015-03-29 10:49:46

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#22 2015-03-29 11:13:46

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#23 2015-03-29 12:04:49

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#24 2015-03-29 12:38:04

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

#25 2015-03-29 13:11:06

Re: [SOLVED]HD Screen very high resolution dimension - small [BUG]

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