I just installed ubuntu on my 15 inch (1920x1080) laptop, and things look very small. It is displaying things as if I had a larger monitor.
Things looked fine in my windows partition, and when I checked the seetings I noticed that the display scaling setttings was set as "150% (recommended)". But Ubuntu only lets me do 100% or 200% scaling, which is abnormally large.
When googling, everyone recommends using the following command:
gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['scale-monitor-framebuffer']"but it is not working for me, I still only have 100% and 200% scale settings.
Setting the "Large text" setting on universal access, makes things better, but it still doesen't look perfect, and only affects font.
Is there a solution which actually solves the problem as opposed to work around it (e.g. increasing font size) ?
3 Answers
I had the same problem and solved it with xrandr. I followed the following steps:
Find out what resolution is currently being used.
Run
xrandr. It will list all possible resolutions and mark the current one with an asterisk (*).Here is my output:
▶xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1600, maximum 16384 x 16384
eDP-1 connected primary 2560x1600+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 286mm x 179mm 2560x1600 60.00*+ 59.99 59.97 2560x1440 59.99 59.99 59.96 59.95 2048x1536 60.00 1920x1440 60.00 1856x1392 60.01 1792x1344 60.01 2048x1152 59.99 59.98 59.90 59.91 1920x1200 59.88 59.95 1920x1080 60.01 59.97 59.96 59.93 1600x1200 60.00 1680x1050 59.95 59.88 1600x1024 60.17 1400x1050 59.98 1600x900 59.99 59.94 59.95 59.82 1280x1024 60.02 1440x900 59.89 1400x900 59.96 59.88 1280x960 60.00 1440x810 60.00 59.97 1368x768 59.88 59.85 1360x768 59.80 59.96 1280x800 59.99 59.97 59.81 59.91 1152x864 60.00 1280x720 60.00 59.99 59.86 59.74 1024x768 60.04 60.00 960x720 60.00 928x696 60.05 896x672 60.01 1024x576 59.95 59.96 59.90 59.82 960x600 59.93 60.00 960x540 59.96 59.99 59.63 59.82 800x600 60.00 60.32 56.25 840x525 60.01 59.88 864x486 59.92 59.57 800x512 60.17 700x525 59.98 800x450 59.95 59.82 640x512 60.02 720x450 59.89 700x450 59.96 59.88 640x480 60.00 59.94 720x405 59.51 58.99 684x384 59.88 59.85 680x384 59.80 59.96 640x400 59.88 59.98 576x432 60.06 640x360 59.86 59.83 59.84 59.32 512x384 60.00 512x288 60.00 59.92 480x270 59.63 59.82 400x300 60.32 56.34 432x243 59.92 59.57 320x240 60.05 360x202 59.51 59.13 320x180 59.84 59.32
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)- Set the desired resolution with
xrandr -s 7, where 7 indicates the 8th entry from the list displayed in the first step (counting starts with 0).
This should do the job.
To double check the outcome you can run xrandr again to verify that the asterisk has moved to number 7.
This answer is based on this youtube video I have found.
I think that you can modify a lot of thing using the gnome-tweak-tool.
Install it using:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install gnome-tweak-toolThen search it in the search bar as tweaks and open it.
Click on the Fonts section and modify everything you want that is customizable for example the text scale factor.
You can find also a lot of advanced customization that aren't normally visible in Settings, it's a very useful GUI for custom the system view.
You can do that with xrandr.
Get identificator of your builtin screen:xrandr --currentYou should get something like this:
LVDS-1 connected primary 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 277mm x 156mm 1366x768 60.02*+ 1280x720 60.00 59.99 59.86 59.74 1024x768 60.04 60.00 960x720 60.00 928x696 60.05 896x672 60.01 1024x576 59.95 59.96 59.90 59.82 960x600 59.93 60.00 960x540 59.96 59.99 59.63 59.82 800x600 60.00 60.32 56.25 840x525 60.01 59.88 864x486 59.92 59.57 700x525 59.98 800x450 59.95 59.82 640x512 60.02 700x450 59.96 59.88 640x480 60.00 59.94 720x405 59.51 58.99 684x384 59.88 59.85 640x400 59.88 59.98 640x360 59.86 59.83 59.84 59.32 512x384 60.00 512x288 60.00 59.92 480x270 59.63 59.82 400x300 60.32 56.34 432x243 59.92 59.57 320x240 60.05 360x202 59.51 59.13 320x180 59.84 59.32
VGA-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)So now we know that LVDS-1 is connected and it is builtin screen (because I do not have external monitor).
And now just scale it:xrandr --output LVDS-1 --scale 0.66x0.66.
Why 0.66? Because 100% is 66% of 150%.
If you want this to run on startup, add it to your ~/.Xsession
