Problem with fractional scaling

[Eric De Pessemier]

Hello,

I would like to report a problem with fractional scaling.

I have set it at 125%. I'm using a Huawei Matebook 13inch 2020 AMD (Ryzen 5 3500u) with Radeon Vega 8 Graphics.

After starting the laptop, at the logon screen, the scaling seems to be at 200% but after I logon and go into my user session it turns to a scaling of 125%. At that moment I see 2 mouse pointers, one scaled 200% and one scaled at 125%. The mouse pointer which is scaled at 200% remains in its last position before the login process. It stays on top of any app or window that you open which is a bit annoying.

The second mouse pointer (scaled at 125%) behaves normally.

I tried to take a screenshot, but on a screenshot neither mouse pointer appear so I took a picture which I've added to this bug report.

This bug is not specific to this version of Ubuntu, I can reproduce the problem in version 20.10. I haven't tried this in version 20.04. PopOS 20.10 does not exhibit this problem.

It's a pity that Gnome has not yet made a better implementation of fractional scaling, high density display have been around for a while now. One would expect if one sets the scaling at 125%, that this would be applied system wide (sorry for the rant).

Best regards,
Eric

P.S. : Sorry if this bug has been reported in a wrong category.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 21.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu15
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.8.0-36.40+21.04.1-generic 5.8.18
Uname: Linux 5.8.0-36-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu55
Architecture: amd64
BootLog: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/boot.log'
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Wed Feb 3 20:49:00 2021
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: hirsute
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Picasso [1002:15d8] (rev c2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Picasso [19e5:3e14]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2021-02-03 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 21.04 "Hirsute Hippo" - Alpha amd64 (20210123)
MachineType: HUAWEI HN-WX9X
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.8.0-36-generic root=UUID=b98eae12-e501-4bfe-88e5-b713ae9b9843 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 09/04/2020
dmi.bios.release: 1.13
dmi.bios.vendor: HUAWEI
dmi.bios.version: 1.13
dmi.board.asset.tag: N/A
dmi.board.name: HN-WX9X-PCB
dmi.board.vendor: HUAWEI
dmi.board.version: M1130
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: N/A
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: HUAWEI
dmi.chassis.version: M1130
dmi.ec.firmware.release: 1.13
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHUAWEI:bvr1.13:bd09/04/2020:br1.13:efr1.13:svnHUAWEI:pnHN-WX9X:pvrM1130:rvnHUAWEI:rnHN-WX9X-PCB:rvrM1130:cvnHUAWEI:ct10:cvrM1130:
dmi.product.family: MateBook
dmi.product.name: HN-WX9X
dmi.product.sku: C100
dmi.product.version: M1130
dmi.sys.vendor: HUAWEI
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.103-2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 20.3.2-1
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.9-2ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:19.1.0-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20200714-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.16-1

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks for the bug report.

The two cursors problem (which mostly affects amdgpu) is bug 1873052.

There is also bug 1870736 which sounds related but that one seems to be for the Nvidia driver only. Since you're using amdgpu we should probably keep this bug separate(?)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

By the way, a different scaling factor on the login screen is expected. Because that runs as a different user and so doesn't use the same display settings you chose for yourself.

If you would like the login screen to use your own preferred scaling factor then you should be able to copy your monitor config to the login screen with something like:

  sudo cp ~/.config/monitors.xml ~gdm/.config/