Bug 2026166 - Fractional scaling for X11
Summary: Fractional scaling for X11
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED EOL
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: mutter
Version: 35
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
unspecified
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Florian Müllner
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2021-11-23 23:08 UTC by Alberto Mimbrero
Modified: 2023-08-16 13:41 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
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Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2022-12-13 15:57:38 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


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Description Alberto Mimbrero 2021-11-23 23:08:04 UTC
Description of problem:
Wayland fractional scaling is perfect, but for X11 apps running under XWayland, like Electron and Java apps (basically 80 % of my daily needs), the scaling is awful. It just scales up the output and the window is insanely blurry. I just can't use those apps.

I'm currently running Ubuntu in my laptop because, along with Manjaro and other distros, they provide a patch to Mutter and GNOME control center to allow fractional scaling in X11. https://github.com/puxplaying/mutter-x11-scaling and https://github.com/puxplaying/gnome-control-center-x11-scaling respectively.

Most of HiDPI users can't switch to Fedora just because of that. I know the performance is worse, but just let people decide if they want to use this feature. With a minimally suitable machine that performance loss isn't noticed by anyone in 2021.

Open for discussion!


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open control center
2. Click screens
3. Change the scaling?

Actual results:
Fractional scaling is not available in control center.

Expected results:
Fractional scaling is available in control center.

Additional info:

Comment 1 Alberto Mimbrero 2021-12-08 11:51:14 UTC
Hello?

Comment 2 Jonas Ådahl 2021-12-08 13:06:43 UTC
There are no plans to introduce "fractional scaling" in the X11 session; there is no way to do that that doesn't have severe side effects, and it would result in an extra maintenance burden, which should not be taken lightly, as most of the development team are primarily focusing on the Wayland session. Anyone is free to maintain such a patched version in for example a copr however.

Comment 3 Alberto Mimbrero 2021-12-08 13:14:38 UTC
Interesting. Then, are there plans to support fractional scaling for X11 apps in XWayland in a better way? They render blurry (I think it's just a 100% program scaled up to match the size of the Wayland apps). This is the main reason to not use Wayland for a lot of people, as Electron and Java apps are our main needs. Thanks in advance.

Comment 4 Jonas Ådahl 2021-12-08 13:57:17 UTC
As for Xwayland, it's a complicated problems, and there are currently no solutions that doesn't involve choosing between either making HiDPI able X11 applications blurry while making non-HiDPI able X11 applications usable, and making HiDPI able X11 applications non-blurry while non-HiDPI able X11 applications being completely unusable.

Comment 5 Ben Cotton 2022-11-29 17:22:57 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora Linux 35 is nearing its end of life.
Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora Linux 35 on 2022-12-13.
It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer
maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a
'version' of '35'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora Linux version.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not 
able to fix it before Fedora Linux 35 is end of life. If you would still like 
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version 
of Fedora Linux, you are encouraged to change the 'version' to a later version
prior to this bug being closed.

Comment 6 Ben Cotton 2022-12-13 15:57:38 UTC
Fedora Linux 35 entered end-of-life (EOL) status on 2022-12-13.

Fedora Linux 35 is no longer maintained, which means that it
will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we
are closing this bug.

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