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Debian with HiDPI / 4K displays




I recently started using a 4K display with Debian jessie and GNOME shell

The hardware setup was quite straightforward as I chose to buy a new
graphics card with 4K support and a relatively new monitor.  The
graphics card and monitor both support DisplayPort 1.2 so I just hook
them up with the standard cable.

The graphics card vendor supplies a proprietary driver but everything
else is currently running using the packages from jessie.

However, I've come up against the DPI issues.

The actual DPI is about 131x137 on a 32" display.

xdpyinfo reports 96x96

It looks like there has been a history of bug reports about DPI in both
the Xorg server itself and some individual applications.

Some web sites suggested using gnome-tweak-tool to change the window
scaling factor.  It only appears to accept integer values and changing
it from the default of 1 to 2 makes the fonts too big.

So, is there any strategy for HiDPI with Debian?  Is a BTS tag needed to
track such issues perhaps?  Or is it already dealt with in unstable and
people just have to wait for it?

My general feeling is that the 32" 4K display was a worthwhile purchase
and it definitely lets me improve my workflow.  For example, I can now
have all my communication tools (Icedove, IRC and others) arranged in a
single virtual desktop, none of them overlap each other and I don't have
to use alt-tab to switch between them.  In another virtual desktop I no
longer need to run Eclipse at full screen, I can just give it two thirds
of the screen and use the rest for testing things.  However, all fonts
are really tiny, they are readable and even pleasant to look at but I
would probably like to see them just a little bigger.

Regards,

Daniel


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