[Solved] High resolution screen with Xmonad

gribblygook · 2018-08-29 22:28:58

Hi,

I'm trying to set up Xmonad with a high resolution screen and having difficulties with making the screen size and fonts bearable.

I've been going through the HiDPI wiki trying to get it to work https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI

I'm currently running gdm and alternating between Budgie and Xmonad.
1920x1080 dimension
96x96 resolution

Currently Budgie is mostly ok. Things are smaller than I'm used to but they're ok, text in browsers could be larger though.
When running xmonad i've been changing settings in .Xdefaults/.Xresources to make my terminal look nicer and everything seems to be working except from font sizes so I don't think it's a syntax or compilation problem.

When running

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface scaling-factor <scale_factor>

with a scale factor of 1 Budgie and Xmonad remains the same. When running with a scale factor of 2, Budgie becomes unusable as it's now only a quarter of the screen shown, however Xmonad remains the same I assume because it doesn't use gnome?

When running

xrandr --output eDP1 --scale <scale_factor>x<scale_factor>

. The output is the same on budgie and xmonad. 1.5 is too small, 0.85 is close to what I want however the font gets quite blurry.

When running the following command

xrandr --dpi <dpi>

without changing the scale factor with the previous command the command executes without errors but makes no changes as far as I can see. If I run this command after changing the scale factor I get the following error

X Error of failed request: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
  Major opcode of failed request: 140 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request: 7 (RRSetScreenSize)
  Serial number of failed request: 34
  Current serial number in output stream: 36

Is there a way to get these two to work together and how can I get xmonad to change the size of fonts without it getting blurry?

Thanks

Last edited by gribblygook (2018-08-31 08:08:59)

jasonwryan · 2018-08-29 23:21:36

http://dpi.lv/

gribblygook · 2018-08-30 10:40:26

jasonwryan wrote:

http://dpi.lv/

So it says my DPI is 166, running

xrandr --dpi 166

doesn't make any difference if that's what I was supposed to do? Still unable to change font sizes without changing the scale factor which also makes it looks horrible

jasonwryan · 2018-08-30 17:28:23

Setting the correct DPI is one (necessary) step. I have no idea what "unable to change font sizes" means. I have always found it quite straightforward.

gribblygook · 2018-08-30 20:58:47

jasonwryan wrote:

Setting the correct DPI is one (necessary) step. I have no idea what "unable to change font sizes" means. I have always found it quite straightforward.

In my XMonad terminal the writing is incredibly small, I can make it larger with

xrandr --output eDP1 --scale 0.85x0.85

The problem is this makes things messy as it looks zoomed in and isn't displaying it nicely with the resolution. I've tried changing the settings in .Xdefaults and .Xresources with many things I've seen similar to

URxvt.font:     xft:bitstream vera sans mono:size=16:antialias=true

and many other variations I've found online that are supposed to have worked. I've been able to alter other features of the terminal such as colour.

Last edited by gribblygook (2018-08-30 20:59:18)

jasonwryan · 2018-08-30 21:08:57

For a monitor that size/resolution, you should just need to set the correct DPI and then the appropriate font size. No idea how Budgie works, but for a WM like Xmonad it is pretty simple.

Forget the --scale for the time being: set your DPI in an xorg. conf file, then adjust your font size in the terminal accordingly.

gribblygook · 2018-08-30 22:04:12

jasonwryan wrote:

For a monitor that size/resolution, you should just need to set the correct DPI and then the appropriate font size. No idea how Budgie works, but for a WM like Xmonad it is pretty simple.
Forget the --scale for the time being: set your DPI in an xorg. conf file, then adjust your font size in the terminal accordingly.

Yep working now and it was simple, sorry it was a fresh install of arch and I thought I had urxvt running by default in xmonad

basic xmonad.hs file

import XMonad

main = xmonad def
  { terminal     = "urxvt"
  , borderWidth  = 1
  }

basic .Xdefault

URxvt.font: xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono-8

jasonwryan · 2018-08-30 23:11:23

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

Arch Linux

#1 2018-08-29 22:28:58

[Solved] High resolution screen with Xmonad

#2 2018-08-29 23:21:36

Re: [Solved] High resolution screen with Xmonad

#3 2018-08-30 10:40:26

Re: [Solved] High resolution screen with Xmonad

#4 2018-08-30 17:28:23

Re: [Solved] High resolution screen with Xmonad

#5 2018-08-30 20:58:47

Re: [Solved] High resolution screen with Xmonad

#6 2018-08-30 21:08:57

Re: [Solved] High resolution screen with Xmonad

#7 2018-08-30 22:04:12

Re: [Solved] High resolution screen with Xmonad

#8 2018-08-30 23:11:23

Re: [Solved] High resolution screen with Xmonad

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