[sllug-members]: SUSE/KDE reinstall: Everything's big

[Paul Koshevoy]

David J Iannucci wrote:
> Hi...
>
> I just reinstalled my SUSE 9.3 laptop (Thinkpad T42) with 10.1.  I'm
> very skeptical about in-situ upgrades, so I backed up, and wiped and
> reinstalled the machine.  Now, when I try to load my stuff back on,
> EVERYTHING'S BIG.  That is, fonts and icons and so on are all much
> larger (looking) than they used to be.  A good example is gaim (IM
> client).  It used to be the "right" size for my resolution - now
> it's HUGE!
>
> The operative thing here is that I'm using KDE as my desktop (with IceWM
> as WM).  My basic X setting is fine - the resolution is 1400 x 1050 -
> just what it's supposed to be. I suspect it may be a single setting
> somewhere that tells KDE what DPI or expect the display to be using, and
> pitch font and icon sizes appropriately.  And perhaps it's passing this
> info on to the apps? I started out not noticing that it was a pervasive
> problem and started resizing my fonts in a few apps, and then realized
> that was a dumb way to approach it.
>
> Anybody have any idea where I need to tweak to get things to look
> right again?
>
> Thanks,
> Dave
>   
First, in KDE control center make sure that under
Appearance&Themes->Icons->Advanced your Desktop/File Manager icon size
is not set to something huge (like 64 or something).

If that's not the case, try specifying DisplaySize width_mm height_mm in
xorg.conf Monitor section. You can measure the size of your LCD and
specify the correct values, and if you don't like results (fonts still
too big to your liking) you can lie and tell it you have some giant
monitor (400x300 mm).

    Paul.