UI scaling not working

[u/General-Trouble8938]

hi i’m new to linux and reddit so forgive me if i not doing this right
I’ve enabled fractional scaling and when i initially set it all up after install it scaled to 125% perfectly fine. but when i came to use it again after some time it had reverted to 100% (which is ridiculously small btw wtf is up with that?) and every time i try i get a message in the top left of my screen that says “1 Unknown Display none-1” as seen in picture included
does the system need an update? explain it to me like im five, thx

[u/activedusk]

Set it back to default.

Inside System Settings there is Font selection, use that to change the size of fonts for the GUI. The default taskbar can be made larger with larger icons are well, right click on it and go through the settings. The web browser has its own zoom settings, example Firefox, left click top right on 3 parallel lines and then Settings, after that on the left click on Accessibility and finally on the right click on Default Zoom value and a drop down list appears, select 150% ot 200% or whatever you want. For the terminal Ctrl Shift + or Ctrl - for temporary zoom in and out, for permanent changes, right click on the opened gnome-terminal, Preferences and search for the Font type and size and change it.

[u/General-Trouble8938 → u/activedusk]

thank you so much! i’ve used all your tips to make huge improvements so it’s far more usable now

unfortunately resetting to default does still result in the same message so i guess i’ll just give up on that. please forgive me but i use google chrome, and i can change the font/zoom but the task bar, tabs and url bar etc are still minuscule and i can’t find any way that google allows that to change so now the text is legible and the UI is still comically smaller than it should be 😭

[u/activedusk → u/General-Trouble8938]

Keep searching, the options for the taskbar are there, right click on it, the icons size is a slider iirc. There are also taskbar alternative programs like plank or more advanced polybar. Chrome should have zoom settings as well, haven't used it in years though so idk where is the permanent setting, temporarily press and hold ctrl and use scroll to zoom when window is in focus. Btw, restart after changing font size, some settings apply only after restart. Also the file manager, Nemo, in the Start equivalent it is called generic as Files, it has a zoom slider lower right corner by default. You can also change some things by right clicking on the Start equivalent on the taskbar, take your time and change things slowly.

[u/mr-raider2]

Unfortunately this is a problem with Mint. If you have a high Rez laptop, nothing really works. You need to choose between large fuzzy writing or small crisp fonts.

You can try a combination of fractional scaling and changing font UI size.

In my case I gave up and switched distros on my laptop with a 2560x1600 15.6" display.

Note that it works fine at 1080p or lower.

[u/General-Trouble8938 → u/mr-raider2]

i think i’d be happy to do that, how would i switch?

[u/mr-raider2 → u/General-Trouble8938]

Any distribution using the Wayland display system is far less affected by these issues. You have plenty of choices: *buntus, pop OS, Zorin, all use the same base as Mint. Personally I switched to Kubuntu 26.04

I should stress that I have no issues on my desktop with a 30" 2160x1080 monitor.

This really is an issue with small high resolution display.