HUGE text on desktop (Suse10.1)

**TommyWylie** · 11-22-2009

I installed Suse 10.1 on a Pentium III system this evening, but when I booted it into KDE for the first time, the desktop font is gigantic. I mean the words "My Computer" fill the entire width of the screen! If I click on the green icon in the bottom left of the screen the resulting menus are so gigantic they cannot even be read! I cannot use the computer in this state and cannot think of a way to sort this. Obviously the installation has fouled up somewhere while installing fonts and/or video drivers. Can anyone suggest a way to sort this?

UPDATE: Since posting this, I have rebooted into a different shell, unfortunately with the same HUGE text, but it has provided a command window with normal small text... so I can now enter any commands you can give me. I am rather new to Linux command language however, so it might be a tricky process.

**reed9** · 11-22-2009

How unusable is it? Can you open the control center (or type kcontrol in your terminal to open), I'm not sure where exactly it is but I think under Appearance->Fonts there will be an option to force DPI. Try changing the value to 96.

Open try editing the file kdmrc

Code:

nano /opt/kde/share/config/kdm/kdmrc

Look for the line starting ServerArgsLocal and append -dpi 96 to that line. It'll look something like

Code:

ServerArgsLocal=-nolisten tcp -dpi 96

or try

Code:

xrandr --dpi 96

**reed9** · 11-22-2009

By the way , opensuse 10.1 reached end of life May 31st 2008 and is no longer supported. I highly recommend installing a current distro. (This may also solve your problem.)

**TommyWylie** · 11-22-2009

OK thanks reed9. I typed "nano /opt/kde/share/config/kdm/kdmrc" and the KDE console opened. I have a picture of it on my hard drive but I can't upload it as the upload box asks me for a URL. I got nowhere with the other methods you described.

**deano_ferrari** · 11-23-2009

As reed9 already mentioned, this version is not supported any longer, so you would be better off installing openSUSE 11.2.

You could try the following:Boot to runlevel 3, by typing '3' at grub menu, then press 'Enter'. Log in, and then enter these commands

su (to become root, enter root password when prompted)
nano /opt/kde/share/config/kdm/kdmrc

It is also possible that you need to reconfigure your graphics card settings. Again, from runlevel 3, as root, you could try

sax2 -r (try to redetect your graphics card)

or

sax2 -r -m 0=vesa (to use basic vesa driver to get working desktop)

Type 'init 5' when finished.

**reed9** · 11-23-2009

Were you able to edit the ServerArgsLocal line and restart? No effect? Oh, shoot, you might not be able to edit it. It needs to be opened as root, sorry

Code:

su -
nano /opt/kde/share/config/kdm/kdmrc

You can try booting into runlevel 3 (which means no GUI), and trying to force the dpi when starting the X server.

Code:

su -
nano /etc/inittab

Look for this line

Code:

# The default runlevel is defined here
id:5:initdefault:

Change the 5 to 3.

Code:

# The default runlevel is defined here
id:3:initdefault:

Reboot. (From the console reboot with

Code:

su -c 'reboot'

When it starts, it will drop you to just a console login.
After logging in as your user try

Code:

startx -- -dpi 96

**mikesd** · 11-23-2009

Originally Posted by deano_ferrari

You could try the following:Boot to runlevel 3, by typing '3' at grub menu, then press 'Enter'. Log in, and then enter these commands

try getting to a virtual console by hitting CTRL+Fx key (x being 1-6)

then as root type

Code:

init 3

**TommyWylie** · 11-24-2009

OK thanks guys I now have a desktop I can actually read! I wish I could show you what it looked like before... I took a photograph of it but can't upload it from my local machine as the site asks for a URL for the image.

OK, now the adventure will start...!

**TommyWylie** · 11-24-2009

Spoke too soon. I was in failsafe mode, so I logged off and rebooted... and KDE came up with gigantic text again. I have had to reboot once more with the dpi 96 command. If I don't type startx -- -dpi 96 it gives me huge text. I am now in KDE with proper sized text. Is there anywhere in KDE to set the text size so this does not happen again?

**reed9** · 11-24-2009

You should be able to set it from the KDE Control Center. Under Appearance and Themes -> Fonts.

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