[RESPONDED] Using 1800x1200 frame resolution on Arch Linux+Wayland+KDE

Hi all, I’m running KDE-Wayland and Arch Linux on my Framework 13th Gen Laptop. Now, the dpi is 200, which is far too small for me to comfortably use.

When I go to KDE System Settings → Display Monitor → Display Configuration, I can either scale up my current resolution or use other (pre-set) resolutions. The scale option causes all X11 apps to look blurry, so it doesn’t work well. The pre-set resolutions do work, but they are all 16:9, 8:5, 4:3 or 5:4. creating letterboxing on my laptop screen.

As a result, I tried searching up how I could make custom resolutions on KDE-Wayland. One website suggested adding video=eDP-1:1800x1200@60 to the kernel parameters via grub. However, the frame resolution does not actually change after reboot, nor is 1800x1200 an available setting in Settings. sudo dmesg | grep 1800x1200 shows

[    0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=cd99b203-7047-4e89-8952-7e000adbf32f rw loglevel=3 quiet nvme.noacpi=1 module_blacklist=hid_sensor_hub video=eDP-1:1800x1200@60
[    0.029572] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=cd99b203-7047-4e89-8952-7e000adbf32f rw loglevel=3 quiet nvme.noacpi=1 module_blacklist=hid_sensor_hub video=eDP-1:1800x1200@60
[    2.982548] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] User-defined mode not supported: "1800x1200": 60 180634 1800 1920 2112 2424 1200 1201 1204 1242 0x20 0x6
[    3.040029] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] User-defined mode not supported: "1800x1200": 60 180634 1800 1920 2112 2424 1200 1201 1204 1242 0x20 0x6
[    8.291849] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] User-defined mode not supported: "1800x1200": 60 180634 1800 1920 2112 2424 1200 1201 1204 1242 0x20 0x6
[   18.535700] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] User-defined mode not supported: "1800x1200": 60 180634 1800 1920 2112 2424 1200 1201 1204 1242 0x20 0x6
[   18.538834] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] User-defined mode not supported: "1800x1200": 60 180634 1800 1920 2112 2424 1200 1201 1204 1242 0x20 0x6
[ 1808.084696] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] User-defined mode not supported: "1800x1200": 60 180634 1800 1920 2112 2424 1200 1201 1204 1242 0x20 0x6
[ 1813.628873] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] User-defined mode not supported: "1800x1200": 60 180634 1800 1920 2112 2424 1200 1201 1204 1242 0x20 0x6

So I’m not sure if the Intel graphics drivers will even let me use 1800x1200.

Has anyone tried editing their resolutions on KDE-Wayland? If so, how did they do it?

Hi @Kyan_Cheung
Rather than changing the resolution, change the scale factor from 100% to 125% or 150%. Leave the resolution to native. Fractional scaling is supported by Plasma 5.27 and works pretty well.
After changing the scale factor, logout to ensure every app uses it.

I am not very knowledgeable on kernel parameters but I don’t feel okay with putting a resolution settings there? Maybe don’t do that.

Hi @Cipher
I’m on Plasma 5.27, and fractional scaling looks horrible - sometimes, text looks incredibly distorted, and other times, the screen looks very blurry.

Have a look at these images to see what I mean. It’s not very useable.

When I took these images using Flameshot, the original window took up the top left quadrant of the screen - suggesting it’s rendering images at 1128x752 or thereabouts and upscaling. That won’t do.

point taken, it’s not the best. Plasma 6 should resolve the blurriness but it’s not due to be release until next year.

I took a screenshot as well to compare,text on yours screenshot definitely look a lot more blurry to me, edges look more soft then they should be, idk if this image will show any details.

Edit: After uploading the picture, I’m not so sure if the differences are as pronounced. Let me know.

Btw, you may want to make a post on discuss.kde.org
Developers usually hang out there, one of them will likely have some temporary fix until plasma 6 is out.

Definitely will want to reach out to http://discuss.kde.org/ as this is something they may be able to help with. We do not test against KDE Plasma at this time.

I’m on Ubuntu 24.04, with xorg.
Don’t know if it’s usefull for you, but this blog work for me :

https://technobrice.com/tech/ashleigh/how-to-change-the-screen-resolution-in-ubuntu-tutorial-1261217#

$  cvt 1800 1200
$ sudo xrandr --newmode "1800x1200_60.00"  180.75  1800 1920 2112 2424  1200 1203 1213 1245 -hsync +vsync
$  sudo xrandr --addmode eDP-1 "1800x1200_60.00"
$  xrandr --output eDP-1 --mode "1800x1200_60.00"