[SOLVED] Subminiature taskbar and application launcher menu

[jaymot]

I just got my "new" (new to me, actually about a year old) Asus Zenbook UX303U ultrabook today. After making an image of its EOM Windows 10 Home installation I wiped its drive and installed Mint KDE. So far so good, with one major exception: the lappy packs an HDTV resolution into a little 13 inch screen. Windows 10 looked OK but in Mint, or in any other Linux in their live cds, the items in the application launcher menu and the icons in the system tray and on the taskbar are tiny.

I went into system settings/display and monitor and changed scalng to 2.3 then clicked OK but Apply is greyed out and it doesn't affect the overall desktop settings. How do I get the desktop to a usable state so I can see it without using a magnifying glass?

[jsb]

I don't know if it works the same in KDE (I have XFCE), but one step is increasing the height of panel. I did this by just right clicking on the panel and then going to panel preferences and increasing the row size (pixels).

Here's some more details and additional steps that may be needed:
viewtopic.php?f=57&t=241285&p=1289358&h ... l#p1289358

I went through a number of other steps to increase the size of things, but don't remember all details. I think the other things that I changed or tried changing are: under "Desktop" and "Appearance". Desktop has icon size and font size settings. Appearance has a font size setting and a custom DPI setting.

[jaymot]

A belated thanks. I've been messing around and reinstalling and just now had a chance to reply.

In KDE, to resize the taskbar at the bottom you right-click on it and select "unlock widgets" if they're locked. If not, it will say "lock widgets". When they're unlocked right-click and choose "panel options/panel settings". Right-click and hold on the "Height" button and drag it upward to increas the height of the taskbar and the size of the icons.

Regarding the desktop, the only solution I've found is to click your application launcher and choose Settings/System Settings (KDE settings), scroll down to Hardware, open Display and Monitor then change the resolution to something smaller that works with your monitor. I had to change mine from the default of 3200x1800 (on a 13 inch laptop screen! Who thought this was a good idea?) to 1920x1080. Click Apply. If I leave the system at 3200x1800 and just try to adjust scaling and the taskbar I find that Java apps don't get scaled and remain tiny. Scaling doesn't seem to uniformly apply to everything in KDE like it does in Windows 10.

You can also increase the size of your application menu items and some applications (I think mainly GTK apps) by clicking on the wise "Scale Display" button near the bottom of the Display and Monitors settings window and trying different scaling factors. You have to reboot for scaling changes to take effect, or perhaps just log out and back in, I'm not sure. I find that 1.3 or 1.4 works best for me, otherwise the app menu's icons and font is too big.

[absque fenestris]

Asus ZenBook UX303U / Specs:

13.3in (1920 x 1080) 166ppi AAS matt anti-glare display
2.5GHz Intel Core i7-6500U (3.1GHz Turbo) 2C, 4T
Intel HD Graphics 520Asus ZenBook UX303U: Specs
13.3in (1920 x 1080) 166ppi AAS matt anti-glare display
2.5GHz Intel Core i7-6500U (3.1GHz Turbo) 2C, 4T
Intel HD Graphics 520
12GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
256GB mSATA SSD (SK Hynix)
12GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
256GB mSATA SSD (SK Hynix)... ... etc.

1920 x 1080 on 13" are sporty but not unusual. Somehow you have a miraculous pixel multiplication...

[jaymot]

Mine's a UX303UB. It has 3200x1800 with a Gorilla Glass touchscreen, 4GiB RAM (upgraded to 12) and a 1 terrabyte HD. It came with Windows 10 Home Edition on it which had scaling set at 2.5, so everything looked OK. But as soon as I intalled Linux on it I got the microscopic icons and panels.

I'm now using Mint Cinnamon which handles scaling almost as well as Windows and much better than Plasma did, Scaling was already set to auto in the installation, so the computer is usable right off the bat, even at its native resolution, with no fussing around with the display settings.

[Moem]

So you found a solution? That's cool, please mark the topic as solved. My signature will tell you how. Thanks!

[jaymot]

Well, kind of a solution, or a partial one. I'm still working on it. It seems that everything's being scaled larger except for QT and Java JFX apps. I think I have gotten GTK apps to scale thanks to tips fro smurphos in this thread. Just two more kinds of app GUIs to go.

I was originally using Mint KDE when I first posted, but I'm now using the Cinnamon version (for unrelated reasons.) I think the solution in KDE would be a combination of display scaling (which is difficult to work with in KDE as scaling changes require a reboot, not even just a logout/login but a full reboot, to take effect), lowering the display's resolution, and enlarging the bottom panel. Fonts in KDE can't be scaled using its native configuration tool: you have to install Gnome tweak tools for that. In Mint OTOH, scaling changes are applied right away and font scaling can be adjusted using Cinnamon's own configuration tools.

So the real solution would be to reinstall Mint using the Cinnamon version, but that's not one that I'd want to suggest to someone who's been using Mint for awhile and has a lot of time invested in setting it up and customizing it the way she likes it. But I'll go ahead and mark it solved as I figured out how to fix my original problem which that the panel at the bottom was too small.