Solus Plasma 1920x1028 DPI 150% Fractional Scaling

tomscharbach

I am interested in comments from anyone with actual experience running Solus Plasma on a 1920x1080 laptop display at 150% fractional scaling.

I plan to run out-of-the-box Solus Plasma (Solus-packaged apps only) with two exceptions: (1) Microsoft Edge flatpak and (2) Zoom flatpak. I am particularly interested in any problems/issues you have encountered, such as font rendering/sharpness issues.

Assuming that the Plasma stock setup is identical to that on my desktop, the Plasma Graphic Platform will be X11. The desktop runs fine at 1920x1080 resolution on a 23" monitor using 125% fractional scaling.

I do not plan to run GDK apps, so we can ignore that issue, I think.

The laptop in question has a 13.6" 1920x1080 display and uses Intel UHD 620 onboard graphics. It works perfectly under Windows 11 at 150% scaling, but Ubuntu Budgie's fractional scaling (xrandr) was less than satisfactory.

I would appreciate any comments before I install Solus Plasma. Flawless fractional scaling at 150% is a threshold requirement for me on this laptop.

Brucehankins

tomscharbach It works perfectly for me. I don't have a "stock" install, but it's pretty recent that I did a fresh install. I swapped over to X, changed the scaling, and it works fine. Screenshot below. This is running on a Ryzen 3 3200U with radeon integrated graphics, 15.6" 1920x1080 display.

WetGeek

tomscharbach I am interested in comments from anyone with actual experience running Solus Plasma on a 1920x1080 laptop display at 150% fractional scaling.

You'll probably love it, Tom. I ran 125% scalinng on my Latitude for a long time and didn't notice any quality issues at all. After a time, I decided to scale back to 100% and wear mild reading glasses instead. Gives me more screen real estate, which is useful a lot of ways.

I also run Plasma on my DELL desktop that drives our 4K television. I use 200% scaling there. And the results are great. I can even read fine print in commercials from across the living room. So I can't speak to 150% scaling, but 100%, 125% and 200% work very well. I have no reason to believe that 150% would be any different.

murbert

FWIW I am current running Solus Plasma on my 16" 1440p laptop at 150% scaling and everything looks very good. Fonts, windows, borders etc all seem like the right size.
Will that translate to yours? I think so.

tomscharbach

WetGeek I can even read fine print in commercials from across the living room.

Well, I guess that is a good thing. 😆

Axios

The lenovo I ran that way had no issue with fonts or displaying anything weird but the display was cheap
had mess with adding a icc file and adjusting the gamma that took time hunting down a profile that worked.
Had more issues with themes. Seems in these smaller display and cheaper laptops display issue crop up more
if its a main brand prob wont have problems
(just info my 2 cents) oh color and gamma can mess with sharpness quality issues

tomscharbach

Thanks to all for your comments. As most of you know, I'm a devoted Budgie user. The elegance and minimalism of Budgie is what brought me to Solus, and Budgie remains my preferred desktop.

I've been exploring Plasma for about a month a simple reason: I have run Windows and Linux in parallel for many years (one Windows desktop, one Linux desktop, one Windows laptop, one Linux laptop) and I want to keep doing that going forward. I'm now faced with a hardware mix that doesn't support that unless I have reliable fractional scaling.

My two laptops (a Latitude 7390 and a Latitude 7520) both currently run W11 at 1920x1080, the 13.6" 7390 set to 150% scaling and the 15.6" 7520 set to 125%, in each case the W11 recommended scaling. I bought the 7520 in February, intending to move the 7390 to Solus, but (to my surprise) Solus Budgie doesn't support fractional scaling except through xrandr, and xrandr, frankly, sucks, both on Solus Budgie and Ubuntu Budgie.

The bottom line is that I want to use Solus on the 7390 (currently the railroad laptop), and I can't do that without fractional scaling. So I'm looking Plasma because it supports fractional scaling. I've been using Plasma on my desktop at 125% for a few weeks, and it works fine. Your experience confirms that 150% probably will, too.

I can't say that I'm a great fan of Plasma (Plasma is a lot less minimalist than Budgie, and seems to fit the Solus description ("A sophisticated desktop experience for the tinkerers."). Tinkering and fussing is not my style (I run both W11 and Solus Budgie more-or-less OTB), but I'm a pragmatist. If I need to run Plasma instead of Budgie to fit my use case, and tinker and fuss until I've got it reasonably minimalist, I will.

In any event, I appreciate hearing from your experience with Plasma and fractional scaling. I couldn't test fractional scaling on the 7390 using Live because a reboot is required to make the scaling change, and I'm reassured that if and when I cut the 7390 from W11 to Plasma, I won't get any ugly surprises.

WetGeek

tomscharbach A sophisticated desktop experience for the tinkerers.

Keep two things in mind, Tom: (1), that's someone else's opinion, and may not be yours after working with Plasma for a bit, and (2), just because one DE is more configurable than another doesn't mean you need to tinker with it. KDE Plasma works just fine out-of-the-box. In fact, the 4 or 5 settings that I change when I set up a Plasma machine are exactly the same 4 of 5 settings that I change after a Budgie installation.

It reminds me of Jeff Goldblum's line in Jurassic Park: "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should." Or in this case, just because you can tinker with your DE doesn't mean you have to.

The one thing that's easier for me to do with Budgie is creating virtual desktops. The Budgie Desktop Settings make that particularly easy. When you add the workspace switcher, Budgie automatically puts it in the center of the bottom panel. With Plasma, that requires an extra step. You need to add a spacer on each side of it, if you want it in the center of the bottom panel. The end result is the same. And that's not something most folks would do more than once in the lifetime of a computer.

Offhand, I can't think of anything else that's easier to do with my Budgie machines than with my Plasma machines. And keep in mind that the Solus repositories are the same regardless of the DE you use.

tomscharbach

WetGeek Keep two things in mind, Tom: (1), that's someone else's opinion, and may not be yours after working with Plasma for a bit, and (2), just because one DE is more configurable than another doesn't mean you need to tinker with it. KDE Plasma works just fine out-of-the-box. In fact, the 4 or 5 settings that I change when I set up a Plasma machine are exactly the same 4 of 5 settings that I change after a Budgie installation.

I am getting used to the Solus implementation of Plasma running more-or-less OTB and that is how I intend to run Plasma. The Solus team has done a very good job of implementing the Plasma build, rationalizing Plasma in numerous small ways that clean up Plasma's stock (as in Neon Plasma) design.

I'm even getting used to the (to my mind) supercilious Kloyingly Kute K-naming Konvention used by Plasma for the K-pop apps. Meh.

The menu is the biggest bump in the road for me, so I am experimenting with using the Menu Editor to develop an "All Apps" menu similar to motif available in both W11 and Budgie.

That leads me to another question: Do you know where the menu's data file is stored? I would like to be able to set the menu up once on my desktop, save the menu data file onto a USB for future use, and insert "my" menu into a new build or reinstall build of Plasma, sparing me the aggravation of spending an hour screwing around with the Menu Editor to recreate "my" menu every time I install or reinstall. I can't find anything on the internet about it.

BTW, this is my current Plasma desktop, which is almost identical to my W11 and Budgie desktops:

WetGeek

tomscharbach The menu is the biggest bump in the road for me, so I am experimenting with using the Menu Editor to develop an "All Apps" menu similar to motif available in both W11 and Budgie.

It's easy to remove the Plasma menu. Your remark makes me wonder whether it would be a simple matter to replace it with Bidgie's. Sorta like replacing one file manager with another that you like better. I've never tried that, so I don't know what the answer is, but if it's possible, it might take less tinkering than the change you suggest.

WetGeek

tomscharbach The menu is the biggest bump in the road for me, so I am experimenting with using the Menu Editor to develop an "All Apps" menu similar to motif available in both W11 and Budgie.

It occurs to me that you might do well to put off such a project for a while, to find out just how much of a problem it actually is after you've gotten more familiar with Plasma. I use Windows 10 (rarely), Budgie, and Plasma, and I've never felt the need to modify any of their menus. Our requirements appear to differ in that respect.

I actually use the icon-only task manager far more than I use any of the menus, to be honest. Based on your screen shot, it appears that you make good use of that as well.

In fact, if you were to ask me what's different between the Budgie and Plasma menus, I'd need to take a quick look before answering you. Each one seems very normal to me, and neither seems any easier to use than the other, albeit they're not exactly the same.

tomscharbach

WetGeek It's easy to remove the Plasma menu.

That's good to know, but where and what format is the menu data file? I'm hoping to be able to set the menu up the way I want it on my desktop, copy it to a USB, and insert it from the USB into Plasma when I do a new build or rebuild.

WetGeek Your remark makes me wonder whether it would be a simple matter to replace it with Bidgie's. Sorta like replacing one file manager with another that you like better.

I don't think that would work, because Budgie and Plasma use different apps.

WetGeek

tomscharbach That's good to know, but where and what format is the menu data file?

Sorry, not a clue. But I'm sure someone on the team will answer you soon.

WetGeek

tomscharbach I don't think that would work, because Budgie and Plasma use different apps.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. I suspect it might be more a matter of some additional dependencies, but that's just a guess. I routinely install and use KDE software on my Budgie computers, and always have. It would be worth asking someone who knows for sure. Menus (or widgets in general) might be a special case.

tomscharbach

WetGeek I actually use the icon-only task manager far more than I use any of the menus, to be honest. Based on your screen shot, it appears that you make good use of that as well.

I use the taskbar 90% of the time, going into the menu only rarely. But when I do go into the menu, I don't like hunting around numerous menu subcategories to find what I am looking for and playing "whack-a-mole" with flyout screens, as Plasma requires.

Next time you are in Budgie, open the menu and click "All". You'll get a scrolling alpha listing of every item in the menu. Ditto for Windows 10 and 11. That's what I'm trying to accomplish. But I am beginning to realize that the task is likely to be a lot more complicated than it seems, because it doesn't look like the Plasma menu will create a scrolling list, just an unworkable flyout. So I'll probably just learn to live with it.

WetGeek

tomscharbach So I'll probably just learn to live with it.

Sounds like a very wise choice. Choose your battles carefully.

Axios

tomscharbach I am just saying not trying get you use it but you could do that with gnome
be curious if one could not make the others do it.
Maybe something found here https://store.kde.org/browse?cat=398&ord=latest

WetGeek

Axios Maybe something found here

Wow! Even as a lont-time Plasma user, I dkdn't realize what all was available from there. That's certainly a great resource for the tweakers who want to change everything. Thanks for posting that.

tomscharbach

Axios Maybe something found here https://store.kde.org/browse?cat=398&ord=latest

Thanks. The Simple Application Launcher looks like it might fit the bill.

WetGeek

@tomscharbach

I keep forgetting to ask you ... how's Plasma's implementation of fractional scaling working out for you?

tomscharbach

WetGeek I keep forgetting to ask you ... how's Plasma's implementation of fractional scaling working out for you?

It has been working fine on my desktop -- 23.6" screen, 1920x1080 resolution, 125% -- for several weeks. I trust that it will work on the laptop's 13.6" screen, 1920x1080 resolution, 150%, based on the experiences related in the comments.

I think that I'll put in a small M.2 to replace the laptop's existing M.2, though, and install on the small M.2 so that I can pop my W11 setup back into the computer if Plasma doesn't work out for any reason. The nice thing about Latitudes is that it is easy to get into the case and swap and switch components as needed.