Linux hidpi problems

blucobalt · September 12, 2025, 4:13pm

Hi,
My gentoo laptop has a 4k display. These days, I don’t have many issues with hidpi scaling because of the advent of wayland and modern software libraries, but I occasionally still run into issues:

Does anyone have any advice on what I should do?

emerge --info kicad

❯ emerge --info kicad
Portage 3.0.68 (python 3.13.7-final-0, default/linux/amd64/23.0/desktop/plasma/systemd, gcc-15, glibc-2.42-r1, 6.16.5-p1-gentoo-dist x86_64)
=================================================================
                         System Settings
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-6.16.5-p1-gentoo-dist-x86_64-AMD_Ryzen_7_PRO_6850U_with_Radeon_Graphics-with-glibc2.42
KiB Mem:    28476840 total,   6961804 free
KiB Swap:   33538044 total,  31424184 free
Timestamp of repository gentoo: Thu, 11 Sep 2025 17:03:58 +0000
Head commit of repository gentoo: a40a55dc17e78fc2a3e278505a7ceb1f02fe6823

Head commit of repository blucobalt-overlay: abc7c5fa24cd5eee27b72d6c2bb7b9048c53e0a9

Timestamp of repository guru: Thu, 11 Sep 2025 17:03:51 +0000
Head commit of repository guru: 0450fba0b134fde2dfc9e3d5429df07f48c73465

Timestamp of repository steam-overlay: Thu, 11 Sep 2025 10:03:57 +0000
Head commit of repository steam-overlay: e7f915c275c2d338f5063133d30aa3d7fc76b1d9

sh bash 5.3_p3-r2
ld GNU ld (Gentoo 2.45 p3) 2.45.0
ccache version 4.11.3 [enabled]
app-misc/pax-utils:        1.3.8::gentoo
app-shells/bash:           5.3_p3-r2::gentoo
dev-build/autoconf:        2.72-r3::gentoo
dev-build/automake:        1.18.1::gentoo
dev-build/cmake:           4.1.1::gentoo
dev-build/libtool:         2.5.4::gentoo
dev-build/make:            4.4.1-r100::gentoo
dev-build/meson:           1.9.0::gentoo
dev-java/java-config:      2.3.4::gentoo
dev-lang/perl:             5.42.0::gentoo
dev-lang/python:           3.12.11_p1::gentoo, 3.13.7::gentoo, 3.14.0_rc2::gentoo
dev-lang/rust-bin:         1.88.0::gentoo, 1.89.0::gentoo
dev-util/ccache:           4.11.3::gentoo
llvm-core/clang:           20.1.8::gentoo, 21.1.0::gentoo
llvm-core/llvm:            20.1.8::gentoo, 21.1.0::gentoo
sys-apps/baselayout:       2.17::gentoo
sys-apps/sandbox:          2.46::gentoo
sys-apps/systemd:          257.9::gentoo
sys-devel/binutils:        2.45-r1::gentoo
sys-devel/binutils-config: 5.5.2::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc:             13.4.1_p20250807::gentoo, 15.2.0::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc-config:      2.12.1::gentoo
sys-kernel/linux-headers:  6.16::gentoo (virtual/os-headers)
sys-libs/glibc:            2.42-r1::gentoo
Repositories:

gentoo
    location: /var/db/repos/gentoo
    sync-type: git
    sync-uri: https://github.com/gentoo-mirror/gentoo.git
    priority: -1000
    volatile: False

blucobalt-overlay
    location: /var/db/repos/blucobalt
    sync-type: git
    sync-uri: https://github.com/blucobalt/blucobalt-gentoo-overlay.git
    masters: gentoo
    volatile: False

guru
    location: /var/db/repos/guru
    sync-type: git
    sync-uri: https://github.com/gentoo-mirror/guru.git
    masters: gentoo
    volatile: False

steam-overlay
    location: /var/db/repos/steam-overlay
    sync-type: git
    sync-uri: https://github.com/gentoo-mirror/steam-overlay.git
    masters: gentoo
    volatile: False

Binary Repositories:

binhost
    priority: 9999
    sync-uri: https://mirror.leaseweb.com/gentoo/releases/amd64/binpackages/23.0/x86-64-v3

Installed sets: @esteam
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=native -mtune=native -O2 -pipe"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/config /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt /var/bind"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/dconf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c"
CXXFLAGS="-march=native -mtune=native -O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/var/cache/distfiles"
ENV_UNSET="CARGO_HOME DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DISPLAY GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE GOBIN GOPATH PERL5LIB PERL5OPT PERLPREFIX PERL_CORE PERL_MB_OPT PERL_MM_OPT XAUTHORITY XDG_CACHE_HOME XDG_CONFIG_HOME XDG_DATA_HOME XDG_RUNTIME_DIR XDG_STATE_HOME"
FCFLAGS="-march=native -mtune=native -O2 -pipe"
FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-docompress binpkg-dostrip binpkg-logs binpkg-multi-instance binpkg-request-signature buildpkg-live ccache config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks export-pms-vars fixlafiles ipc-sandbox merge-sync merge-wait multilib-strict network-sandbox news parallel-fetch pid-sandbox pkgdir-index-trusted preserve-libs protect-owned qa-unresolved-soname-deps sandbox strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync xattr"
FFLAGS="-march=native -mtune=native -O2 -pipe"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org"
LANG="en_US.utf8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-z,pack-relative-relocs"
LEX="flex"
MAKEOPTS="-j12"
PKGDIR="/var/cache/binpkgs"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --exclude=/.git"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
SHELL="/bin/zsh"
USE="X a52 aac acl acpi activities alsa amd64 bash-completion bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdda cdr cet cjk colord crypt cups dbus declarative dist-kernel dri dts dvd dvdr encode exif flac flatpak gdbm gif gpm gtk gui iconv icu ipv6 jpeg kde kwallet lcms libnotify libtirpc mad mng mp3 mp4 mpeg multilib ncurses networkmanager nls nvme ogg opengl openmp pam pango pcre pdf pipewire plasma png policykit ppds pulseaudio qml qt5 qt6 readline screencast sdl seccomp semantic-desktop sound spell ssl startup-notification svg synaptics systemd test-rust thunderbolt tiff tpm truetype udev udisks uefi unicode upower usb vaapi vdpau vorbis vulkan wayland widgets wxwidgets x264 xattr xcb xft xml xv xvid zlib zsh-completion" ABI_X86="64" ADA_TARGET="gcc_14" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_anon authn_dbm authn_file authz_dbm authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="karbon sheets words" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" CPU_FLAGS_X86="mmx mmxext sse sse2 aes avx avx2 f16c fma3 pclmul popcnt rdrand sha sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock greis isync itrax navcom oceanserver oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf skytraq superstar2 tsip tripmate tnt ublox" GRUB_PLATFORMS="efi-64" GUILE_SINGLE_TARGET="3-0" GUILE_TARGETS="3-0" INPUT_DEVICES="synaptics libinput wacom" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb text" LLVM_TARGETS="X86" LUA_SINGLE_TARGET="lua5-1" LUA_TARGETS="lua5-1" OFFICE_IMPLEMENTATION="libreoffice" PHP_TARGETS="php8-3" POSTGRES_TARGETS="postgres17" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_12" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_13 python3_12" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby32 ruby33" VIDEO_CARDS="amdgpu radeonsi" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tarpit sysrq proto logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account"
Unset:  ADDR2LINE, AR, ARFLAGS, AS, ASFLAGS, CC, CCLD, CONFIG_SHELL, CPP, CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, CXX, CXXFILT, ELFEDIT, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, EXTRA_ECONF, F77FLAGS, FC, GCOV, GPROF, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, LD, LFLAGS, LIBTOOL, LINGUAS, MAKE, MAKEFLAGS, NM, OBJCOPY, OBJDUMP, PORTAGE_BINHOST, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PYTHONPATH, RANLIB, READELF, RUSTFLAGS, SIZE, STRINGS, STRIP, YACC, YFLAGS

=================================================================
                        Package Settings
=================================================================

sci-electronics/kicad-9.0.2::gentoo was built with the following:
USE="nls openmp -doc -examples -test" ABI_X86="(64)" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_12 -python3_11 -python3_13"

emerge --info wxGTK

❯ emerge --info wxGTK
Portage 3.0.68 (python 3.13.7-final-0, default/linux/amd64/23.0/desktop/plasma/systemd, gcc-15, glibc-2.42-r1, 6.16.5-p1-gentoo-dist x86_64)
=================================================================
                         System Settings
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-6.16.5-p1-gentoo-dist-x86_64-AMD_Ryzen_7_PRO_6850U_with_Radeon_Graphics-with-glibc2.42
KiB Mem:    28476840 total,   6977536 free
KiB Swap:   33538044 total,  31424180 free
Timestamp of repository gentoo: Thu, 11 Sep 2025 17:03:58 +0000
Head commit of repository gentoo: a40a55dc17e78fc2a3e278505a7ceb1f02fe6823

Head commit of repository blucobalt-overlay: abc7c5fa24cd5eee27b72d6c2bb7b9048c53e0a9

Timestamp of repository guru: Thu, 11 Sep 2025 17:03:51 +0000
Head commit of repository guru: 0450fba0b134fde2dfc9e3d5429df07f48c73465

Timestamp of repository steam-overlay: Thu, 11 Sep 2025 10:03:57 +0000
Head commit of repository steam-overlay: e7f915c275c2d338f5063133d30aa3d7fc76b1d9

sh bash 5.3_p3-r2
ld GNU ld (Gentoo 2.45 p3) 2.45.0
ccache version 4.11.3 [enabled]
app-misc/pax-utils:        1.3.8::gentoo
app-shells/bash:           5.3_p3-r2::gentoo
dev-build/autoconf:        2.72-r3::gentoo
dev-build/automake:        1.18.1::gentoo
dev-build/cmake:           4.1.1::gentoo
dev-build/libtool:         2.5.4::gentoo
dev-build/make:            4.4.1-r100::gentoo
dev-build/meson:           1.9.0::gentoo
dev-java/java-config:      2.3.4::gentoo
dev-lang/perl:             5.42.0::gentoo
dev-lang/python:           3.12.11_p1::gentoo, 3.13.7::gentoo, 3.14.0_rc2::gentoo
dev-lang/rust-bin:         1.88.0::gentoo, 1.89.0::gentoo
dev-util/ccache:           4.11.3::gentoo
llvm-core/clang:           20.1.8::gentoo, 21.1.0::gentoo
llvm-core/llvm:            20.1.8::gentoo, 21.1.0::gentoo
sys-apps/baselayout:       2.17::gentoo
sys-apps/sandbox:          2.46::gentoo
sys-apps/systemd:          257.9::gentoo
sys-devel/binutils:        2.45-r1::gentoo
sys-devel/binutils-config: 5.5.2::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc:             13.4.1_p20250807::gentoo, 15.2.0::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc-config:      2.12.1::gentoo
sys-kernel/linux-headers:  6.16::gentoo (virtual/os-headers)
sys-libs/glibc:            2.42-r1::gentoo
Repositories:

gentoo
    location: /var/db/repos/gentoo
    sync-type: git
    sync-uri: https://github.com/gentoo-mirror/gentoo.git
    priority: -1000
    volatile: False

blucobalt-overlay
    location: /var/db/repos/blucobalt
    sync-type: git
    sync-uri: https://github.com/blucobalt/blucobalt-gentoo-overlay.git
    masters: gentoo
    volatile: False

guru
    location: /var/db/repos/guru
    sync-type: git
    sync-uri: https://github.com/gentoo-mirror/guru.git
    masters: gentoo
    volatile: False

steam-overlay
    location: /var/db/repos/steam-overlay
    sync-type: git
    sync-uri: https://github.com/gentoo-mirror/steam-overlay.git
    masters: gentoo
    volatile: False

Binary Repositories:

binhost
    priority: 9999
    sync-uri: https://mirror.leaseweb.com/gentoo/releases/amd64/binpackages/23.0/x86-64-v3

Installed sets: @esteam
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=native -mtune=native -O2 -pipe"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/config /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt /var/bind"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/dconf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c"
CXXFLAGS="-march=native -mtune=native -O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/var/cache/distfiles"
ENV_UNSET="CARGO_HOME DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DISPLAY GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE GOBIN GOPATH PERL5LIB PERL5OPT PERLPREFIX PERL_CORE PERL_MB_OPT PERL_MM_OPT XAUTHORITY XDG_CACHE_HOME XDG_CONFIG_HOME XDG_DATA_HOME XDG_RUNTIME_DIR XDG_STATE_HOME"
FCFLAGS="-march=native -mtune=native -O2 -pipe"
FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-docompress binpkg-dostrip binpkg-logs binpkg-multi-instance binpkg-request-signature buildpkg-live ccache config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks export-pms-vars fixlafiles ipc-sandbox merge-sync merge-wait multilib-strict network-sandbox news parallel-fetch pid-sandbox pkgdir-index-trusted preserve-libs protect-owned qa-unresolved-soname-deps sandbox strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync xattr"
FFLAGS="-march=native -mtune=native -O2 -pipe"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org"
LANG="en_US.utf8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-z,pack-relative-relocs"
LEX="flex"
MAKEOPTS="-j12"
PKGDIR="/var/cache/binpkgs"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --exclude=/.git"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
SHELL="/bin/zsh"
USE="X a52 aac acl acpi activities alsa amd64 bash-completion bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdda cdr cet cjk colord crypt cups dbus declarative dist-kernel dri dts dvd dvdr encode exif flac flatpak gdbm gif gpm gtk gui iconv icu ipv6 jpeg kde kwallet lcms libnotify libtirpc mad mng mp3 mp4 mpeg multilib ncurses networkmanager nls nvme ogg opengl openmp pam pango pcre pdf pipewire plasma png policykit ppds pulseaudio qml qt5 qt6 readline screencast sdl seccomp semantic-desktop sound spell ssl startup-notification svg synaptics systemd test-rust thunderbolt tiff tpm truetype udev udisks uefi unicode upower usb vaapi vdpau vorbis vulkan wayland widgets wxwidgets x264 xattr xcb xft xml xv xvid zlib zsh-completion" ABI_X86="64" ADA_TARGET="gcc_14" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_anon authn_dbm authn_file authz_dbm authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="karbon sheets words" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" CPU_FLAGS_X86="mmx mmxext sse sse2 aes avx avx2 f16c fma3 pclmul popcnt rdrand sha sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock greis isync itrax navcom oceanserver oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf skytraq superstar2 tsip tripmate tnt ublox" GRUB_PLATFORMS="efi-64" GUILE_SINGLE_TARGET="3-0" GUILE_TARGETS="3-0" INPUT_DEVICES="synaptics libinput wacom" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb text" LLVM_TARGETS="X86" LUA_SINGLE_TARGET="lua5-1" LUA_TARGETS="lua5-1" OFFICE_IMPLEMENTATION="libreoffice" PHP_TARGETS="php8-3" POSTGRES_TARGETS="postgres17" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_12" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_13 python3_12" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby32 ruby33" VIDEO_CARDS="amdgpu radeonsi" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tarpit sysrq proto logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account"
Unset:  ADDR2LINE, AR, ARFLAGS, AS, ASFLAGS, CC, CCLD, CONFIG_SHELL, CPP, CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, CXX, CXXFILT, ELFEDIT, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, EXTRA_ECONF, F77FLAGS, FC, GCOV, GPROF, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, LD, LFLAGS, LIBTOOL, LINGUAS, MAKE, MAKEFLAGS, NM, OBJCOPY, OBJDUMP, PORTAGE_BINHOST, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PYTHONPATH, RANLIB, READELF, RUSTFLAGS, SIZE, STRINGS, STRIP, YACC, YFLAGS

=================================================================
                        Package Settings
=================================================================

x11-libs/wxGTK-3.2.8.1-r2::gentoo was built with the following:
USE="X gstreamer libnotify lzma opengl sdl spell tiff wayland -curl -debug -doc -keyring (-pch) -test -webkit" ABI_X86="(64) -32 (-x32)"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-z,pack-relative-relocs -Wl,--undefined-version"

Naib · September 12, 2025, 9:00pm

hI,
Unfortunately I have the same issue (gentoo and HiDPI here )

Gentoo forces Kicad to build non-wayland support due to incompletness in wayland support in WX ( bug bug #911120)

but equally Xwayland support for HiDPI is shortcoming

right now I do not scale the fonts as much

blucobalt · September 12, 2025, 9:26pm

That bug is from 2023. I wonder if it would be worth it to open a new one to see if anything has changed in the past 2 years?

Naib · September 12, 2025, 9:31pm

I talked to sam_ on IRC when 9.0.x was being released about the possiblity of enabling EGL. WX is still got issues, as recently proven in feb 2025

Add run-time check for EGL version on canvas creation · Issue #22325 · wxWidgets/wxWidgets
Wxwidgets / Kicad: High load with EGL support enabled · Issue #24977 · wxWidgets/wxWidgets

Likewise, Wayland still have limitations: KiCad and Wayland Support | KiCad

in short, its probably too premature to switch kicad to wayland on gentoo but the beauty of gentoo is you can do that locally