Xubuntu, How Can I Make Everything Bigger?

[jancellor]

Hello

I am running Xubuntu 12.10 on top of a Window 7 VirtualBox. My native resolution is 1366x768 on a 13 inch screen. Everything is too small for my eyes. I simply want to make everything bigger, and not just the fonts. This sounds simple to me but I have searched for hours and been unsuccessful.

Is this possible at all? I tried to use xrandr. Is it right to try to set something in X as opposed to Xfce? And if so is xrandr the right tool?

In any case it did not work. I can do "xrandr -s 1024x768" to change the resolution, but if I do "xrandr --dpi 120" or "xrandr --dpi 120 1366x768" nothing happens and nothing is output on the console. The output of "xrandr -q" is as below. Could the problem be VirutalBox related?

1366x768 60.0*+
1600x1200 60.0
1440x1050 60.0
1280x960 60.0
1024x768 60.0
800x600 60.0
640x480 60.0

Many thanks for any help.

James

[sudodus]

You can change the screen resolution with xrandr like you tried: xrandr -s 1024x768, but you seem to have only one wide screen resolution (and that is your native resolution). Instead I suggest that you select larger fonts in your application programs. Often it can be set in the Preferences menu. In some programs, for example web browsers, you can increase it with the hotkey combination ctrl + and decrease it with ctrl -

I hope this can help

Edit: Everything will be bigger with

xrandr -s 800x600

but you won't use all the screen (or it will be distorted).

[jancellor]

Thanks for your reply.

I do not want just to change the font size. I need everything to be bigger, including title bars, panels, buttons, etc.

Doing "xrandr -s 800x600" does not make everything bigger. It simply uses only 800x600 physical pixels.

I think you imply that it is the resolution (eg 1366x768) rather than the dpi (eg 96) setting that would affect the size of buttons, etc. I can see how this would make sense if those 800x600 pixels were stretched to fit the entire screen, but that is not what happens (for me); there is a black border of unused pixels.

Any more ideas anyone? And is xrandr (or the display server) definitely the place to make changes to achieve what I want?

Many thanks

James

[blackbird34]

You can edit the size of all OS elements in one go with DConf Editor, a graphical editor for a whole pile of system settings.

It is available in the repositories, so you can type in the following command or else get it from the Ubuntu Software Centre.

sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

Once you've got it go to the "org" section in the left hand margin then look for: gnome > desktop > interface > text scaling factor.

Default value is 1.0, if you make it bigger (say 1.2 or even 1.3) everything will get bigger, and if you make it smaller (say 0.9) everything will get smaller. Don't put it at 5 straight away or everything will be unusable

[sudodus]

You can edit the size of all OS elements in one go with DConf Editor, a graphical editor for a whole pile of system settings.

It is available in the repositories, so you can type in the following command or else get it from the Ubuntu Software Centre.

sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

Once you've got it go to the "org" section in the left hand margin then look for: gnome > desktop > interface > text scaling factor.

Default value is 1.0, if you make it bigger (say 1.2 or even 1.3) everything will get bigger, and if you make it smaller (say 0.9) everything will get smaller. Don't put it at 5 straight away or everything will be unusable

This looks like a good tool

[jancellor]

blackbird, are you aware I'm asking about Xubuntu not Ubuntu? Everything I can find seems to indicate this is exclusively for GNOME and not Xfce.

sudodus, full screen VirtualBox with Windows 7 host and Xubuntu guest. It sounds to me like what you are suggesting would be "tricking" the system into scaling an 800x600 image onto a 1366x768 one, which would make the fonts blurry (as well as not in proportion, as you mention).

[pednick2]

Sorry haven't read all the posts in this thread with that out of the way shouldn't dconf Editor be installed by default? I've installed it, it's very useful thank you.

You can edit the size of all OS elements in one go with DConf Editor, a graphical editor for a whole pile of system settings.

It is available in the repositories, so you can type in the following command or else get it from the Ubuntu Software Centre.

sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

Once you've got it go to the "org" section in the left hand margin then look for: gnome > desktop > interface > text scaling factor.

Default value is 1.0, if you make it bigger (say 1.2 or even 1.3) everything will get bigger, and if you make it smaller (say 0.9) everything will get smaller. Don't put it at 5 straight away or everything will be unusable

[sudodus]

Thanks for your reply.

I do not want just to change the font size. I need everything to be bigger, including title bars, panels, buttons, etc.

Doing "xrandr -s 800x600" does not make everything bigger. It simply uses only 800x600 physical pixels.

I think you imply that it is the resolution (eg 1366x768) rather than the dpi (eg 96) setting that would affect the size of buttons, etc. I can see how this would make sense if those 800x600 pixels were stretched to fit the entire screen, but that is not what happens (for me); there is a black border of unused pixels.

Any more ideas anyone? And is xrandr (or the display server) definitely the place to make changes to achieve what I want?

Many thanks

James

On my computers the whole height will be used when 800x600 is selected (the pixel values will be interpolated). But on a wide screen there will be black borders at the sides, because only part of the width is used. But since that won't work for you, I agree that you need something else.

Did I get it correctly, that you run Xubuntu in VirtualBox, and that Windows 7 is the host operating system?

I think you can try two things.

- I thought you were using the whole screen for VirtualBox (not only a window in Windows). Try that (if you haven't)!

- Change the resolution of the screen in the hosting Windows 7 system! (At least it used to be done like this: right-click on the desktop background ...) ... and Xubuntu should inherit that resolution.

[dogtag1968]

Thank you for your ctrl+ ctrl- recommendation.

[dentaku65]

Choose Setting Manager -> Appearance -> Fonts and select the desired Custom DPI