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I'm using Ubuntu 20.04 with a 2160p TV on my new HTPC with AMD Ryzen 3200g APU.

To sync the display refresh rate to the video being played I have the xrandr.lua script for mpv which just runs xrandr, for example:

xrandr --output HDMI-A-0 --mode 3840x2160 --rate 24

That works fine except whenever the xrandr command is run (also when I do it manually) it resets Gnomes display scaling setting back to 100%, which is suboptimal on a TV a distance away, I can't read any text.

Is there a way to force Gnome to always use 200% scaling by default, no matter what?

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  • did you take a look at the --scale option from xrandr Jun 2, 2020 at 22:28
  • @B.duGaray yes, but that blurs things which I want to avoid.I think I found the solution here: wiki.gnome.org/HowDoI/HiDpi after setting it manually from the terminal the scaling isn't reset anymore by xrandr. The downside is that the option in the settings GUI doesn't seem to work anymore, I'll try it for a bit and then write an answer.
    – soi
    Jun 3, 2020 at 15:37

2 Answers 2

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After searching and trying some more I found a solution:

Manually enabling HiDpi support as explained in https://wiki.gnome.org/HowDoI/HiDpi with

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings overrides "[{'Gdk/WindowScalingFactor', <2>}]"

and then setting the scaling-factor to 2 with

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface scaling-factor 2

in a Terminal (without sudo) will force Gnome to use 200% scaling. Running Xrandr will not reset it anymore.

The downsides are:

  1. Changing the scaling from the Ubuntu Settings GUI doesn't work anymore
  2. Gnome will always use 200% scaling by default, even if you connect a 1080p monitor because it disables Gnomes auto-selection based on the display DPI.

Both are things I can live with, since I use it as a HTPC with only my TV connected.

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You can also install dconf-editor to change the default settings in gnome for xrandr and your monitors:

sudo apt -y install dconf-editor

You should be able to then go to the folder:

/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/xrandr

through that app.

If you can't find what you're looking for there you can try using gsettings to find a schema and key that will allow you to force 200 scaling.

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