Unable to set different Scale on different Monitors

[Stephen Ostrow]

My laptop screen is 3840x2160 while my external monitor is only 1680x1050. In order for the laptop monitor to be usable I have the scaling set at 200 (this works wonderful). However, when I plug in my external monitor it is scaled up to 200% as well making it unusable.

Attempting to scale one to 100 and the other 200 looks to be possible; however, the Apply button keeps appearing and disappearing randomly with no actual effect.

It looks like practically you can only set one scale for both monitors even though the UI looks to be letting you do it.

I have tried this on Wayland and Xorg with similar results.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-36.40-generic 4.13.13
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-36-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.7
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon Feb 26 15:12:53 2018
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: artful
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, including running git bisection searches
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Device [8086:5917] (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:83b9]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-02-21 (5 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Release amd64 (20180105.1)
MachineType: HP HP Spectre x360 Convertible 13-ae0xx
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.13.0-36-generic.efi.signed root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 01/23/2018
dmi.bios.vendor: AMI
dmi.bios.version: F.14
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: 83B9
dmi.board.vendor: HP
dmi.board.version: 56.37
dmi.chassis.type: 31
dmi.chassis.vendor: HP
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAMI:bvrF.14:bd01/23/2018:svnHP:pnHPSpectrex360Convertible13-ae0xx:pvr:rvnHP:rn83B9:rvr56.37:cvnHP:ct31:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.family: 103C_5335KV HP Spectre
dmi.product.name: HP Spectre x360 Convertible 13-ae0xx
dmi.sys.vendor: HP
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.83-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~17.10.1
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 17.2.8-0ubuntu0~17.10.1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.19.5-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.10.0-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20170309-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.15-2

[Stephen Ostrow (isleshocky77)]

Note the missing apply button is also mentioned in #1745440

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Stephen,

Please also report this issue to the upstream developers here:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-control-center/issues

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Stephen Ostrow (isleshocky77)]

I've now reported this upstream to gnome-control-center here: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-control-center/issues/17

[Stephen Ostrow (isleshocky77)]

Just a follow up. I've gotten some good information from this AskUbuntu post at https://askubuntu.com/questions/875832/how-to-set-per-monitor-scaling-on-wayland

Following these directions seem to help with certain applications (e.g. gnome-terminal, gedit, nautilus); however, it does not work for others (e.g. thunderbird, pidgin, google-chrome).

It apears it's an issue with XWayland.

I would further mention even though applications like nautilus look correct, things like their context menu are blown up. I assume that some other application is handling that (gnome?) - I'm unsure of how that part of the rendering works.

[Stephen Ostrow (isleshocky77)]

Another note, I'm able to make chrome usable on my external monitor by opening it using the following command. Obviously if I move chrome to my 4k laptop monitor it becomes unusable. But just documenting it as another avenue.

GDK_DPI_SCALE=.5 google-chrome

[Stephen Ostrow (isleshocky77)]

It looks like this bug may be a duplicate of the 1735986

[Stephen Ostrow (isleshocky77)]

correct notation: bug 1735986