[KDE] Icons/visual display enlarged after update

[akoontz11]

After updating my server (which runs KDE) from Jammy Jellyfish to Noble Numbat (Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS), the visual display of all the icons is very much enlarged, as though scale has been set to 150%.

Similar posts about this issue appearing within KDE on ArchLinux are here, here, and here. However, I can't follow the recommended fix (updating the /etc/sddm.conf file to include [X11] [new line] ServerArguments=-nolisten tcp -dpi 96) because there is no sddm.conf file in /etc.

There is a /sddm folder, which contains a file Xsession--but I'm not sure if this needs to be updated instead. There's also a /sddm.conf.d folder which contains 2 files (default.conf and kubuntu_settings.conf)--but including the above text ([X11] ServerArguments=-nolisten tcp -dpi 96) to these files and rebooting did not address this issue.

Finally, there's also an /etc/X11 folder with many files/folders (including something called Xsession.options). But I'm out of my depth and don't know what needs to change here to fix the issue. Thanks very much for any recommendations!

(Context: I administer this server remotely and ssh in, so I actually haven't witnessed this display behavior myself. I'm limited by how frequently there's a user onsite who can let me know whether or not any fix I've implemented has worked).

[claydoh]

Remember that those links are offering stuff that will be quite old, and thus may not be relevant, plus different disros may have these files in different locations.


Have you had the local user check the display settings ? SDDM iirc won't have an effect on the actual desktop's settings, as far as I remember from that, the issue is usually the other way 'round, getting SDDM to match the desktop.

Not sure if one can set the scale remotely using kscreen-doctor, but this is the preferred way over setting DPI in recent years.

kscreen-doctor -o

$ kscreen-doctor -o
Output: 1 DP-1 <--------------the screen name
enabled
connected
priority 1
DisplayPort
Modes: 1:1920x1080@60! 2:1920x1080@75* 3:1920x1080@60 4:1920x1080@60 5:1920x1080@60 6:192
0x1080@60 7:1920x1080@50 8:1920x1080@50 9:1680x1050@60 10:1600x900@60 11:1280x1024@75 12:1280x102
4@60 13:1440x900@60 14:1280x960@60 15:1152x864@75 16:1280x720@60 17:1280x720@60 18:1280x720@60 1
9:1280x720@50 20:1280x720@50 21:1024x768@75 22:1024x768@70 23:1024x768@60 24:832x624@75 25:800x60
0@75 26:800x600@72 27:800x600@60 28:800x600@56 29:720x576@50 30:720x576@50 31:720x480@60 32:720x
480@60 33:720x480@60 34:720x480@60 35:640x480@75 36:640x480@73 37:640x480@67 38:640x480@60 39:64
0x480@60 40:640x480@60 41:720x400@70
Geometry: 0,0 1920x1080
Scale: 1   <---------------------------THIS
Rotation: 1
Overscan: 0
Vrr: incapable
RgbRange: Automatic
HDR: incapable
Wide Color Gamut: incapable
ICC profile: none
Color profile source: sRGB
Brightness control: supported, set to 0%

kscreen-doctor --help has examples

 kscreen-doctor output.DPI-1.scale.2

Fractional scaling may not play nice with x11, though.


But for Plasma 5, the old ways might still work, too

kwriteconfig --file ~/.config/kcmfonts --group "General" --key "forceFontDPI" "96"


Or manually edit or create the file ~/.config/kcmfonts and enter/edit the text:

General]
forceFontDPI=96