Wallpaper zoomed in on 2 of my 3 screens

[The Bright Side]

I have a bug on Linux Mint 19.2 (Cinnamon 4.2.4) where the wallpaper is zoomed to the dimensions of the smallest monitor on the two larger ones.

My monitor setup:

Left: 1280x1024 (DVI)
Middle: 2560x1440 (DP, Primary Screen)
Right: 1920x1080 (HDMI)

When I set a wallpaper, it looks fine on all 3 screens. After I reboot, it scales perfectly to the leftmost monitor, and the same section that appears on that small monitor is the duplicated on the other two, scaled up and blurry/pixellated.

This is what it looks like right after setting it:
https://pasteboard.co/Izjn7wd.jpg

This is what it looks like after rebooting:
https://pasteboard.co/Izjntk9.jpg

Notes:

This issue does not occur if I disconnect the small DVI screen. If only the DP (2560x1440) and HDMI (1920x1080) screen are connected, the wallpaper is correctly fit to both screens.

This is the exact same bug that other people experienced in 2016, 2017 and 2018: viewtopic.php?f=208&t=220953

Workaround:

You can set a different wallpaper via command right after startup, and immediately afterwards set the one you want again, forcing it to get re-applied just as if you were setting it from the GUI. Create the following two Startup Applications:

Name: Wallpaper fix (temp)
Command: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file:///home/username/path/to/someotherwallpaper.jpg
Startup delay: 1s

Name: Wallpaper fix (desired wallpaper)
Command: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file:///home/username/path/to/thewallpaperyouwant.jpg
Startup delay: 3s

The reason that the "Wallpaper fix (temp)" command needs to run first is that the second one, setting the desired wallpaper, won't do anything if the wallpaper is already set, which it is when logging in.

Does anybody know a fix for this bug?

[Spearmint2]

post results of this command.

Code: Select all

xrandr

[The Bright Side]

Hi Spearmint2, sorry for the late reply, I was travelling. Here goes:

Code: Select all

Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 5760 x 1440, maximum 32767 x 32767
DVI-D-0 connected 1280x1024+0+416 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 376mm x 301mm
   1280x1024     60.02*+  75.02  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      75.03    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   640x480       75.00    59.94  
HDMI-0 connected 1920x1080+3840+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 621mm x 341mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+  59.94    50.00    60.00    50.04  
   2880x576      50.00  
   2880x480      59.94  
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1440x576      50.00  
   1440x480      59.94  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1280x720      60.00    59.94    50.00  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    72.19    60.32    56.25  
   720x576       50.00  
   720x480       59.94  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    59.94    59.93  
DP-0 connected primary 2560x1440+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 708mm x 398mm
   2560x1440     59.95*+
   1920x1080     60.00    59.94    50.00    23.98  
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1600x900      60.00  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1280x800      59.81  
   1280x720      60.00    59.94    50.00  
   1024x768      75.03    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   720x576       50.00  
   720x480       59.94  
   640x480       75.00    59.94    59.93  
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-4 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-5 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

Best regards,
Matt.

[Spearmint2]

Looks fine to me, but maybe if they all could be set to same resolution that would solve the problem. Here's some links about "multihead" setups like you are using. If those don't help, then searches for multihead, Xorg might find an answer. Sorry I can't do more for you. Why such a high resolution on the smaller monitor? It doesn't make sense to me,since it's smaller than the other two, according to you.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Multihead

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Extreme_Multihead

https://www.linuxsecrets.com/archlinux- ... ihead.html

[The Bright Side]

Unfortunately, all 3 monitors are quite different from each other. :-/ I bought them new or used in various places over the years. They're all running at their native resolutions, which happen to be 3 different ones. The smallest one is 19", for which 1280x1024 works quite well, nothing appears too small.

Due to them being made for different resolutions and having different aspect ratios, I wouldn't want to set them all to the smallest one's resolution, 1280x1024.

I'll check out the links you mentioned, thanks!

[andrewsmith]

Sadly I am experiencing this now, in the middle of 2021 with 20.2. My monitors aren't even the same ratio, so setting the same resolution on them just wouldn't work at all.

Workaround:

You can set a different wallpaper via command right after startup, and immediately afterwards set the one you want again, forcing it to get re-applied just as if you were setting it from the GUI. Create the following two Startup Applications:

Name: Wallpaper fix (temp)
Command: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file:///home/username/path/to/someotherwallpaper.jpg
Startup delay: 1s

Name: Wallpaper fix (desired wallpaper)
Command: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file:///home/username/path/to/thewallpaperyouwant.jpg
Startup delay: 3s

Thanks for sharing this workaround! It worked great.

I do wish someone would fix it properly

[The Bright Side]

In fact, I've since discovered HydraPaper, which solves this problem and on top of that, allows me to set different wallpapers per screen. Works like a charm, available as a flatpak. May wanna check it out.