I know that this topic isn’t necessarily Framework specific, but since I am at a loss with general google searches and expect that I am not the only Linux Beginner here, I will try anyways.
I recently received my Framework 16 laptop (with Batch 20) and have used this opportunity to delve into Linux with the intent to switch from Windows permenantly once I am comfortable with it. As I am a beginner to Linux (using Fedora 40 with KDE Plasma 6.1) I am currently setting up my FW16 with all the programs I need including Windows Applications either through VM or through Bottles. As a Windows Veteran, I am also getting used to the perks and struggles of flatpak use. One of the biggest annoyances I have come accross is the inconsistent UI scaling depending on what applications I run. Default for me is fractional scaling at 150%, but some applications refuse to scale accordingly, especially some flatpaks and all Windows applications I run with the WINE compatibility layer through Bottles.
Does anyone know (or can refer me to a manual describing) how I can set up my applications so that their UI scales up to the same 150% (or just scale up in general). I am willing to configure this on an app by app basis, as long as it automatically applies when an application is started. Ideal would be a way that does not require me to start the app via terminal (configuring the .desktop file or settings in flatseal would be nice). A special culprit I would to mention isthe steam flatpak which has a tiny UI by default and really would benefit from a ui upscale. Every upscale suggestion I found only so far does absolutely nothing and if I allow the system to upscale X11 composited applications, the resolution in games is being reduced by the same factor.
I really hope anyone here has had the same issues and already knows a general solution/approach for this, as I find it quite annoying and one of the issues that should not cause as much trouble.
The steam flatpak is actually pretty easy to fix the scaling for! I had the same problem as you and this reddit faq was really helpful. I pretty much used the env variable added as a launch option. You can do this for every flatpak you have as well. Haven’t noticed a UI scaling issue with any other flatpaks I use but I’m on a FW13 so there’s that. Also on Fedora KDE
Do these change KDE from being Wayland based to X11 based? Or what do they do? Don’t wan’t to install something that might negatively affect other parts of the DE. Couldn’t really find a clear explanation online as well.
KDE runs on both Wayland and X11, it’s that Fedora developers’ removal of X11 desktop environment on Fedora 40 that affects you and probably other users as well.
Installing this is to bring back the X11 option just like in Fedora 39.
X11 is less buggy than Wayland, especially in terms of fractional scaling. Fedora developers’ intention is probably “funnel” users to Wayland, creating unsatisfaction so users will be forced to get used to this, alongside other Linux software developers. It’s like Apple removing 3.5mm headphone jack do boost the sale of Airpods, which succeeded as users’ satisfaction goes down and e-waste goes up as other smartphone manufactures followed. Those who do not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.
Thank you for sharing this FAQ. The FAQ did help resolve the scaling issue with flatpak steam, but did not actually fully describe what I had to do. Here is what I did to get UI Scaling to work with flatpak steam. This requires Flatseal to manage flatpak settings as I currently do not know how to do these things via CLI (and flatseal is really awesome anyways).
I started flatseal and added the line STEAM_FORCE_DESKTOPUI_SCALING=x (with x being the scaling factor I wanted. in my case 1.5) under Steam–>Environment. Afterwards, I had to start steam and go to Steam–>Settings–>Interface and activate 'Scale text and Icons to match monitor settings (requires restart). Only then would it actually scale properly. Up until now, I ignored this setting, as it alone does not do anything if you don’t also add this environment variable somewhere.
My apologies, I must have clicked that setting while poking around trying to fix scaling myself and had forgotten what I had done! Also, you can remove flatseal as KDE system settings actually has that functionality built in. You can search flatpak permissions and the relevant page should pop right up. Or you can use Flatseal, both work, just throwing that out there.
You are right its essentially the same functionality. Although it seems to miss the option to apply settings to all flatpaks at the same time (including auto-setup when new flatpaks are installed). Flatseal has that option and i use it to give flatpaks access rights to second drive (pure data drive) etc by default.
Then please solve OP problem right now, prove your point. You are the one bashing.
Please keep the thread civil, yes X11 is EOL, yes X11 is unsecure, yes it’s a monolith that isn’t even remotely acceptable in term of code quality and modern code standards, but it works. And whatever you say, it’s not because KDE devs do something that it’s the new truth: KDE is acceptable under wayland but still breaks under certain conditions. Remember the switch from KDE 4 to KDE 5? or the switch from 5 to 6? It’s always the same thing, KDE is never really ready on full releases, so just wait for 6.3 if you want something stable. Even 6.1 is very buggy. Now let’s address the issue.
Here it seems that the problem @Widur is experiencing is bad scaling under legacy (X11) apps under wayland.
Unfortunately, the state of the linux desktop is still deplorable in 2024 and will still be for the next decade, I like the approach wayland takes, but transitioning from an almost 40 years old X11 to a whole new system takes a lot of time. Until then, try to minimize your use of flatpaks that go through legacy (X11) systems as these are unsecure in nature and deprecated, or use a X11-only system with no wayland.
To be clear, some people dislike wayland because freedesktop has adopted a questionable direction when developing wayland, making everything more complex, semi-requiring systemd components or other dependencies like dbus, elogind, policykit, making wayland too complex and dependency-ridden. I don’t like it, but 1000 times better than X11. Wayland itself works, but the compatibility layer to X11 is a mess. A wayland-only system is incredible, and works almost always. But a X11-only systemd always works, despite being insecure.
Also, protocol discussions are more like child arguments between ego-obsessed people, stubborn gnome devs, and employees that believe that redhat gives them magical powers. So until people start actually being civil and discussing about code, wayland won’t make it. I’m rooting for wayland. A huge thanks for the devs that actually are moderating and making everyone agree through this shit storm.
I was aware that Linux DE’s are still far behind other Windows when it comes to ease of use or reliability. I am making the switch now, as I have been annoyed by Windows since Windows 8 and it is getting worse and worse. So far my experience with Fedora KDE 6.1 has been pretty ok. I am still running a decent amount of applications on a Windows VM and so far, it has been incredibly easy to set up, fast (its actually faster than my 4 year old Dell XPS 15) and reliable.
My biggest struggles so far have been Windows Apps I run using Bottles. Integrating them so that certain file types are auto opened with these Windows apps on double click has been a nightmarish learning experience and every app seems to require different file path handling for some reason, but I am not expecting that a Windows App on Linux is running like native out of the box.
On the other hand, I think software updates, system snapshots and data backups are handled so much better than in windows that I really don’t want to go back. I also think KDE 6 looks and feels infinitely better than Windows (which I even modified to feel better but still doesn’t come close).
Flatpaks are also something completely new to me. I conceptually like and even prefer them but it takes some getting used to all of the permissions and system access handling to have them run as intended.
Considering the direction Microsoft is going with windows, I think it is a no brainer to do the switch if you are not strongly bound to using windows. And honestly, running a Windows VM on a Linux system partly defies the purpose as you essentially install spyware on your system, but as long as I can use that to only run WIndows applications that don’t work any other way, i am fine with that.
Is there an easy way to figure out whether a flatpak (e.g. installed through Discover) runs through Wayland instead of X11? Without having to google it I mean. Would be a good starting point when trying out new applications.
Another linux refugee! Welcome to our community, we won’t disappoint you like microsoft.
Common thing! You are already using Bottles, I only discovered it pretty recently but today that’s the way I recommend running wine apps. Double click never works except when your distro already packages it… it’s a disaster for user-friendlyness.
Thanks for having realistic expectations!
Yeah, I was a KDE 5 user, but since I updated to 6 it has been such a nightmare of bugs I had to switch to gnome against my will… looking forward to try it again though once the bugs are corrected.
Also based
On flatpaks; trust me they are the future. Maintaining dirsto-specific versions of packages is way too much work with way too much people to trust, maintainers, devs, etc. Flatpak provides a secure, containerized and verifiable (very good to not have malware like on windows) way to run software directly from the devs themselves with no maintainers needed, so bugs can be reported directly upstream. It’s the way forward.
Trust me, I don’t like MS spyware at all but s VM is more secure than wine and bottles as it has an emulation layer. Remember, Wine Is Not an Emulator. Alas, we sometimes have to run windows software, so I understand the pain. Ofc, try to find replacement flatpaks if possible.
If Wayland windowing system is on, turn off fallback to X11 if it’s on. IF the app runs with only wayland then it’s wayland, if it only has X11 turned on by default and does not run when forced to do so under wayland, it’s X11-only. Also, flatpaks are marked insecure like this on flathub when they use an insecure windowing system (X11):
I managed to set it up for Irfanview. Double click on an image automatically opens it in IrfanView which I set up with bottles. I can also scroll through all files in the directory of that initial file. I had to modify the .desktop entry to achieve. Unfortunately, some other apps where I tried this (like Affinity Designer, or Vision Research’s Cine Viewer for footage from Phantom high speed cameras) don’t seem to work the same way. They open and run fine (so far, Designer needs more testing), but I have not managed to fully integrate them like I did with IrfanView.
I am mostly experimenting right now. Technically, my Windows VM works so flawlessly that I could just run all Windows apps I rely on through it and don’t bother with anything else, but that would kinda defy the purpose of running a linux system. Long term, I plan to move from windows apps to linux alternatives (like switch from microsoft office to libre office). But I have been using Microsoft since Windows 95, so this will simply take time.
No problem, take your time and enjoy the ride. The nice thing is that once you switch to flatpaks, no matter the distro you choose in the future, you will always have access to those apps.
If you want a distro that has native support for steam and flatpaks, I recommend bazzite. It’s officially comaptible with frameworks, based on fedora immutable KDE and will work great for your use case (if you’re willing to try it out ofc). bazzite.gg
This is not. I’m not pro or anti Wayland, or pro or anti X11, what I dislike is the act of taking away people’s choices. If X11 works, work on X11, if Wayland works, work on Wayland, if both works, work on either, simple as that. I don’t think removing X11 or scare people away from X11 by claiming “legacy” window system is “unsecure” is the ethical way.
Same. I moved to Linux because Microsoft is doing planned obsolescence in broad daylight such as the artificial hardware requirement TPM2.0
Microsoft is going after Linux as well. A while ago I witnessed Microsoft sabotaged one of my colleague’s dual-boot 5-y/o laptop by pushing a BIOS firmware “security” update, that permanently removed the S3 sleep functionality. Now without [deep] his computer will consume more electricity and gets hotter on standby even on Linux.
I have to downgrade from 6.1.1 to 6.1.0 because of " ‘kded6’ has requested to open ‘kdewallet’"
Firefox, a Wayland-native program, has tiny tab size when on fractional scaling on KDE on Wayland, so I use X11 in this case. Firefox does have appropriately sized tabs on GNOME on Wayland
and scrolling is way smoother on Wayland than on X11.
Use xeyes in Fedora you can $ sudo dnf install xeyes on Terminal. Then type xeyes to run it. Select the program window you want to figure out, then select xeyes window, then move your cursor over the program. If the eyes follow then the program runs through X11, if not, the program is Wayland native.
