[i945gm] Huge font size in KDE and GDM. Makes KDE unusable

Description updated with
twin installation case,
WiFi workaround,
my time schedule.

Another description and Title update.

Problem is a font size. Title updated.
Problem appears in GDM too and in all 8.04-9.10 releases.

The problem appears to be yet another huge font size problem.
Problem appears in GDM too and in all 8.04-9.10 releases.
Gnome itself escapes the problem.
KDE and GDM : Either edges (borders) of the characters appear in windows and boxes, or the latters adapt their sizes to the font, causing white screens in which you do mad scrolling of lines taking 1/4 of screen heigth or so.

I read though a number of similar bug reports without finding a close match.
This solved the GDM case, however:
# /etc/gdm/gdm.conf
[server-Standard]
name=Standard server
command=/usr/bin/X -br -audit 0 -dpi 96

To my understanding, these are correct for Gnome in our installed 9.04:
(II) intel(0): Setting screen physical size to 338 x 211
$ xdpyinfo | grep dots
  resolution: 96x96 dots per inch
System > Preferences > Appearance > Fonts > Details... is 96 dpi already.

But this seems incorrect in the attached, KDE Xorg.0.log:
(II) intel(0): Setting screen physical size to 289 x 21

Is the X server not the same for Gnome and KDE???

As the bugs I read refrain from being a duplicate of one another, I did the same.
Especially making it a duplicate of Bug #151311 !!!

What is the official workaround for this class of problems?

I am also hit by this bug on a HP Compaq nx7400 with Intel 945GM. Following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/HugeFonts it seems to be related to bad monitors. Since the several posts and bugs about the issue, I am writing as reference the following workarounds:

1) For the giant fonts making the KDE session unusable, here it is how I solved the issue:

- after booting, ctrl-alt-F6 to go to a terminal session;
- login with username and password;
- type sudo nano .kde/share/config/kcmfonts
- set DPI to 96 by editing the relevant line into: forceFontDPI=96
- save following on screen instructions
- restart the session or reboot

I adapted a suggestion made in this thread http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3107128.0
since the xterm trick did not work for me.

2) For KDM, similarly to the GDM case, one has to add "-dpi 96" to the line "ServerCmd=/usr/bin/X" in "/etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc" (all without brackets obviously, I have just put them to distinguish relevant instructions from normal text). This solve the giant fonts issue in the login screen. I have adapted an old discussion from http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3087975.0

Hope it helps.

Updating the description to make it more clear.

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. If you could test the current Ubuntu development version, this would help us a lot. If you can test it, and it is still an issue, we would appreciate if you could upload updated logs by running apport-collect 429102, and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue. Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find.

On 2010-08-22 16:42, papukaija wrote :
> If you could test the current Ubuntu development ...
Thank you for coming back.
I'd do that gladly but I'm afraid the IBMPC I helped returned home one
year ago.
I may however try to call the owner and see if he remembers and still
uses the same PC.
If that's OK, I can get you in touch with him by e-mail (preferably in
French).
Now, he's not the only one to own that PC model... (who is "you"?)

We'd like to figure out what's causing this bug for you, but we haven't heard back from you in a while. Could you please provide the requested information? Thanks!

Ps. "You" refers to bug's reporter.

On 2010-09-15 10:29, papukaija wrote :
> We'd like to figure out what's causing this bug for you, but we haven't
> heard back from you in a while. Could you please provide the requested
> information? Thanks!
>
> Ps. "You" refers to bug's reporter.
>
Yes, my reply, about one month ago, is right before what you just wrote.
But you did not reply to it.

Feel free to contact the pc's owner. You may communicate with the owner in whatever language you want, but please bear in mind that all logs or comments for bugs in Launchpad should be in English. This is to make sure that all potential bug triagers and developers may look and fix at this bug.

Ps. According to your xorg log, the monitor's size is : horiz.: 33cm vert.: 21cm Is this correct? If not, please follow the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Quirks to fix it. Thanks in advance!

Please contact the PC's owner directly.

That's quite difficult without the owner's contact details...

On 2010-09-16 13:44, papukaija wrote :

> That's quite difficult without the owner's contact details...
>
... which I obviously cannot post on this public list.
Constructively, if you tell me you do read 429102 at bugs ... I can send
a contact-making private e-mail to both.

There's a contact user link in everybody's LP overview page (the link points to https://launchpad.net/~username/+contactuser ), so there's not even a need to post anything publicly but as stated on the contact page, the message's receiver will get the email address linked to your LP account). Anyway, this bug is affecting 3 people, so you (or the owner of your old pc) aren't the only one who has the necessary graphic card to try and reproduce this bug in Lucid or Maverick (or even Ubuntu 11.04) which all have never xservers and xserver's -drivers than Karmic or older.

On 2010-09-16 18:53, papukaija wrote :
> There's a contact user link in everybody's LP overview page (the link
> points to https://launchpad.net/~username/+contactuser ), so there's not
> even a need to post anything publicly but as stated on the contact page,
> the message's receiver will get the email address linked to your LP
> account).
Indeed, but, unless you explain me otherwise, one must subscribed to
launchpad to send you a private e-mail that way and, as you may expect,
the PC owner is not.
> Anyway, this bug is affecting 3 people, so you (or the owner
> of your old pc) aren't the only one who has the necessary graphic card
> to try and reproduce this bug in Lucid or Maverick (or even Ubuntu
> 11.04) which all have never xservers and xserver's -drivers than Karmic
> or older.
OK, if I'm not "you" then they will be.

André.

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!

> We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need
> to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments.
>
You shouldn't wait until the information is no longer available to
"investigate the problem".
Else, you're making our bug reporting very inefficient and useless.
You rove about Launchpad to change confirmed statuses to invalid.
I'm delighted to learn that the work I've done is invalid.
Don't forget to tell about their score everybody who reported huge fonts.
I loved the idea to cooperate for a better Ubuntu.
But you turned me away from bug reporting. Goodbye.

Please bear in mind that bug's statuses and general control is described at wiki.ubuntu.com and this bug is fully in accordance with those guidelines.

On 2010-10-01 12:01, papukaija wrote :
> Please bear in mind that bug's statuses and general control is described
> at wiki.ubuntu.com and this bug is fully in accordance with those
> guidelines.
>
I don't have time to read wiki.ubuntu.com. But please tell the person
who wrote it that if the result of what he wrote is what happened to
this bug report, viz uselessness and perfectly wasted time, then he must
change his wiki urgently.