On Sat, 5 Aug 2017, Felix Miata wrote:

> Felmon Davis composed on 2017-08-05 00:37 (UTC-0400):
>
> [ -- deleted material -- ]
>
>> I've made a little progress but let me give you some results:
>> xrdb yields dpi = 120

I have some new results to share.

before:

>> xdpyinfo yields:
>> 3200x1800 pixels (270x216 millimeters)
> Peculiar. 270x216 is a 1.25/1 ratio, 5/4, normally only seen with 1280x1024
> resolution displays. 216 is a tad taller than that of a 1920x1080 17" screen.
>
>> resolution 301x212 dots per inch
>
> A bizarre ratio: 1.42:1.


now I get:

resolution: 96x96 dots per inch
dimensions: 3200x1800 pixels (846x476 mm)

why the difference? well, the terminal screen you get after shutting 
down X is really, really tiny and evidently, in one of my attempts to 
do something, I deleted /home/davisf! quite shocked when I couldn't 
log back in.

luckily, it's a 'virgin' system so no loss. I adduser dummy, deluser 
davisf and then adduser davisf and was back.

I reinstalled (apt-get) gdm and was able to log into Debian Desktop 
Environment fine; its dimensions were ok (as before).

I then purged tde/tdm and installed again (apt-get). logged in ok with 
the usual font problems. then I punched around rather unsystematically 
trying different font sizes and also using 'GTK Styles and Fonts'; did 
a liberal dosage of 'about:config' in Firefox and fooling with kicker 
or whatever it's called.

I wish I had taken more careful note because inevitably I will have to 
reproduce it all sometime. but the result is a pretty decent desktop.

here is what I still am unhappy with:

(a) though I can change most of the fonts in Pan, I cannot change the 
menu fonts; same for LibreOffice. I still need to get Apache Office up 
to see what it does.

(b) if I kill X or boot into terminal, I get that teensy-weensy font 
on the terminal. I recall you discussing some kernel fixes for 
this....

if I could only find where the magic is for GTK config files. I do 
have

.gtkrc-2.0.kde4
.gtkrc-2.0.kde-kde4
.config/gtk-3.0

if I only know what recipes to cook with.

I have to run out now so will respond to a couple of points you made a 
bit later but wanted to get out this report.

f.

>> however:
>
>> your website yields what seem to me correct values except for dpi. it
>
> DPI and default font px size reporting require you let the scripts run.
>
>> seems not to capture the dpi values at all but maybe I misinterpret:
>> <https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B--R0Wp8z2MkaTVtNmZ0TnRPNjg/view?usp=sharing>
>
> Interesting. Screen totals are correctly reported. Available and Viewport show
> exactly the values expected for a somewhat common screen size of 2560x1440. I
> have to wonder how you managed to get a Konq window to open at that size on a
> 3200x1800 screen. Odds must be astronomical that it happened by accident.
>
>> I've commented out HorizSync and VertRefresh though I did run
>
>>> 	hwinfo --monitor | grep -A6 'river Inf'
>>
>> and it says "Size: 293x165 mm"
>
>
> That's about as close as Xorg ever gets to accurate. My calculator says a 13.3"
> screen should measure 294.44 by 165.62. Is that the result of using DisplaySize
> in xorg.conf set to manufacturer's screen size specifications?
>
>> so there's some data (or there're some data) and a couple of
>> incongruities.
>
>> I'll stop here and talk about the progress I alluded to earlier.
>
>> I think I have kde apps in ok shape by fooling with fonts and
>> setting fonts to
>
>> System Settings
>> 120 dpi
>
>> what doesn't work is management of LibreOffice, Firefox, the intro
>> display for Trinity Control Center and various apps which I think are
>> GTK (and then there's that grotesquely large login page).
>
>
> I don't see exegnu on DistroWatch, so without it installed, or more information
> on its web site than I've seen, I don't know if GTK3 is installed or what
> toolkit your LO or FF packages are built using. It looks like GTK apps are just
> not capable of reasonably responding to a display of such high DPI on exegnu, or
> maybe without being run in Gnome or Mate or other GTK DE or absent some unusual
> manual gtk configuration or additional package support. Your inability to find
> any gtk*3* packages installed is somewhat puzzling. A distro released only late
> last year ought to be providing at least basic GTK3 support.
>
>> I'll be installing Apache Office which I prefer but suspect it will
>> have the same problem as LO.
>
>> it seems to me I have to fuss with GTK.
>
> Maybe searching in OO or LO forums for HiDPI discussions would prove fruitful.
>
> Maybe we need to have a look at your xorg.conf if you're still using it.
>
> At least let's see Xorg.0.log generated by the best configuration you've come up
> with so far, with or without an xorg.conf.
>
>> or I may follow your advice below and alter the display mode. that's > for tomorrow or the next day.
>
> ...
>
>> I may return the laptop.
>
> Assuming running at lower than native resolution won't be acceptable to you,
> that sounds like a good idea, unless you have really really good young eyes and
> better tolerance for things tiny than the existence of this thread suggests. It
> seems something in some software component, or maybe more than one, is just too
> broken for working on a 276 physical DPI screen.
>
> Is Windows still on it? What are its display/screen and font settings?
>

-- 
Felmon Davis

Time and tide wait for no man.