System font size set incorrectly after reboot

mikkqu · 2016-11-14 02:17:51

Hello,

I'm started to see some weird font behavior and I'm not sure what caused it.
I've changed a few things recently: replaced nvidia GPU from gtx570 to gtx1060 and re-installed nvidia drivers + libgl.
After these changes, I keep noticing the following unwanted effect:

When I start XFCE, the system font size is smaller than it should be for some reason.
The following workaround helps me: after each XFCE start I go to "Settings -> Appearance", change font size from 9 to 10, then change it back from 10 to 9. It magically fixes all the issues. Looks like something interfering into XFCE settings during startup, but I'm not sure what.

I guess it has something to do with "custom DPI settings", cause when I try to manually set the font size to some smaller value, it's either bigger or smaller but never of the exactly same size which I have right after XFCE start. I have this option turned off, just as a note. Maybe something in the system trying to rewrite that value?

Tried to remove ~/.cache/ to reset the session, didn't help.

How can I troubleshoot this?

Last edited by mikkqu (2016-11-14 02:39:35)

ToZ · 2016-11-14 11:40:14

Which distro and which version of Xfce are you using?

Most distros have an xsession-errors file of some sort. Can you post back the contents of yours?

And finally, create a secondary user account on your computer and log in with that account. If the problem persists, its probably a system-wide issues rather that a profile-specific issue.

mikkqu · 2016-11-17 01:03:10

I'm using latest arch linux with xfce 4.12.

It's definitely system-wide cause chaing users didn't help.
I've searched through system and couldn't find "xsession-errors" file.
If these are logs from startx, I'll try to look at them by killing X and posting them here.

Hm, startx log is relatively clear, nothing to catch the eye.
Although I've found this, isn't it strange?

$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep DPI
[ 2752.495] (--) NVIDIA(0): DPI set to (81, 80); computed from "UseEdidDpi" X config

Last edited by mikkqu (2016-11-17 01:46:17)

ToZ · 2016-11-17 03:16:36

mikkqu wrote:

I've searched through system and couldn't find "xsession-errors" file.
If these are logs from startx, I'll try to look at them by killing X and posting them here.

How are you starting Xfce? Are you using a DM (e.g. lightdm, gdm, etc) or manually by running startx. If the latter, you can start Xfce like:

startxfce4 > ~/.xsession-errors 2>&1

...to get an ~/.xsession-errors file. You should be able to do something similar with a DM.

Hm, startx log is relatively clear, nothing to catch the eye.
Although I've found this, isn't it strange?
$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep DPI
[ 2752.495] (--) NVIDIA(0): DPI set to (81, 80); computed from "UseEdidDpi" X config

This is interesting. I don't have an nvidia card, but perhaps you can try to disable EdidDpi via the 'Option "UseEdidDpi" "FALSE"' option in your X config file and see if it makes a difference.

mikkqu · 2016-11-17 03:31:40

cat ~/.xsession-errors
http://hastebin.com/uticitawur.sql

Right after xfce4 start though, it shows right DPI value, despite X.org log:

$ xdpyinfo | grep -B1 dot
dimensions:    1920x1080 pixels (508x286 millimeters)
resolution:    96x96 dots per inch

After I added [Option "UseEdidDpi" "FALSE"] to /etc/X11/xorg.conf into "Screen" section:
(the DPI line output slightly changed and fonts became even smaller)

$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep DPI
[  9875.701] (==) NVIDIA(0): DPI set to (75, 75); computed from built-in default

I've tried to restart xfce4-panel and nothing changed.
Sounds like there are two separate DPI values somehow coexist?
Can I enforce it to 96 somehow too?

Seems like my xorg.conf generated by nvidia-xconfig is too generic, although I'm not sure (is it okay?):
http://hastebin.com/vemuqabina.vbs

Last update:
Adding these two lines to "Device" section finally fixed the problem:
Option "DPI" "96 x 96"
Option "UseEdidDpi" "FALSE"

$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep DPI
[ 10727.247] (**) NVIDIA(0): Option "DPI" "96 x 96"
[ 10727.965] (**) NVIDIA(0): DPI set to (96, 96); computed from "DPI" X config option

Still don't understand why "xdpyinfo" output showed right values regardless of Xorg settings...
Thanks for helping me out, this bothered me enough to start thinking about switching to Ubuntu.
Btw, whose "fault" it was, why I even got into this issue in the first place?

Looks like this issue has nothing to do with XFCE, maybe worth to remove the topic or move to support at least.

Last edited by mikkqu (2016-11-17 04:12:11)

ToZ · 2016-11-17 11:33:04

Glad you found the solution. Lets leave the topic right here in case someone else stumbles across it - its useful information.

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#1 2016-11-14 02:17:51

System font size set incorrectly after reboot

#2 2016-11-14 11:40:14

Re: System font size set incorrectly after reboot

#3 2016-11-17 01:03:10

Re: System font size set incorrectly after reboot

#4 2016-11-17 03:16:36

Re: System font size set incorrectly after reboot

#5 2016-11-17 03:31:40

Re: System font size set incorrectly after reboot

#6 2016-11-17 11:33:04

Re: System font size set incorrectly after reboot

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