Unity's "Scale UI" function problematic on some devices.

[JaSauders]

I'm running a fully updated (as of 4/1/2014) install of Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit. This is on a Toshiba ultrabook with a mobile i5 processor and a 13.3" screen @ 1366x768.

Earlier I was messing with the scale UI mode of the system settings >> display field. I set my UI scale to be maxed out at 4. Once done, windows were so large it was impossible to see. I couldn't even see any options within system settings besides two. Scrolling of course helped a bit but it was largely cumbersome.

Once I went into the displays section to turn UI scaling back down to 1, I realized the function was far out of reach on my screen. I tried to hold down ALT and click to drag the window up beyond the top edge, but Unity crashed. In fact, every single time I hit the ALT key and clicked to drag, Unity crashed. Once Unity crashes 2 or 3 times, it doesn't come back without a hard power down and full startup.

On the flip side, I plugged in an external monitor with a resolution of 1440x900. Once done, suddenly ALT worked and I had no crashes. I was able to drag the displays window up until I could see the UI scaling feature and turn it back down to 1.

There's a few issues here that I feel need to be addressed, since there's little doubt that people will tinker with these functions. After all, these features are baked directly in to the interface as available parameters, but as notated above, settings (such as 4) render the system into a non-usable (and non-fixable without accessive tinkering) state.

Is there a way higher UI scaling modes can be altered for easier scrolling or maneuvering of windows to reset it back if need be? Perhaps a work around could even be a "reset to defaults" button at the top bar? After all, with a UI scaling of 4, I could see the top of the window - just very little else. If I could have reset to default that would have alleviated any headaches.

Thanks for all of your hard work! It's appreciated.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: unity 7.2.0+14.04.20140403-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-22.44-generic 3.13.8
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-22-generic x86_64
.tmp.unity.support.test.0:

ApportVersion: 2.14-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
CompositorRunning: compiz
CompositorUnredirectDriverBlacklist: '(nouveau|Intel).*Mesa 8.0'
CompositorUnredirectFSW: true
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Fri Apr 4 11:10:27 2014
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: trusty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:0009]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-04-01 (3 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Daily amd64 (20140330)
MachineType: TOSHIBA PORTEGE Z835
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-22-generic root=UUID=5d7f7158-1b5b-4946-9916-b8a0c2f59525 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 02/08/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.bios.version: Version 1.60
dmi.board.asset.tag: 0000000000
dmi.board.name: Portable PC
dmi.board.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.board.version: Version A0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 0000000000
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.chassis.version: Version 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnTOSHIBA:bvrVersion1.60:bd02/08/2012:svnTOSHIBA:pnPORTEGEZ835:pvrPT224U-013021:rvnTOSHIBA:rnPortablePC:rvrVersionA0:cvnTOSHIBA:ct10:cvrVersion1.0:
dmi.product.name: PORTEGE Z835
dmi.product.version: PT224U-013021
dmi.sys.vendor: TOSHIBA
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.11+14.04.20140328-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.52-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 10.1.0-4ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 10.1.0-4ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.15.0-1ubuntu7
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2
xserver.bootTime: Fri Apr 4 11:08:50 2014
xserver.configfile: default
xserver.errors:

xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.outputs:
 product id 6637
 vendor ACI
xserver.version: 2:1.15.0-1ubuntu7

[JaSauders (jasauders)]

Hello. I am on my same laptop as I was above when I posted this bug report and after fully updating I noticed some differences. It seems as if the scaling feature must be taking my resolution into account so it doesn't scale the UI so far that I cannot revert back. Before, I could scale from 1 (default) to 4. Now I can only scale from 1 to 1.38. If the assumption I just mentioned (scaling takes resolution into account to prevent over-scaling to the point of no return), then this is a welcome addition. Nonetheless, I wanted to ask/mention it here for some more insight as I'm curious if my assumption is correct. Thank you for your time!

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

FYI, from a tty you can fix the problem by running:

gsettings reset com.ubuntu.user-interface scale-factor

[JaSauders (jasauders)]

It seems as if the final release of 14.04 has fixed this. Either that, or I just magically got lucky on the 4-5 different model systems I'm using 14.04 with.

Before, it seemed like it had a hard coded 1-4 option available in the scaling. If you hit a certain point when scaling up, you would hit the point of no return, where you could not scale down Unity properly (via GUI) and if you tried to ALT + click/hold and drag, Unity would crash. So far I have yet to see that again.

Likewise, it seems as if the system is more intelligent when it comes to the scale. I used to be able to scale this 1366x768 laptop to 4, but now I can only go to 1.38. I have to wonder if the system now detects user environment settings and only offers available options below the problematic threshold.

At any rate, I'm not seeing this issue anymore. Is anybody else?

Thanks for your assistance everybody (anybody reading this, all of our wonderful developers, etc), and thank you Marco for that FYI. Have a good one!