I've been running Core 17.3 on a Dell Latitude E6530. This week I moved my HD to an E6540. It's the same size, slightly newer, but somewhat different internals and more memory.
The 6530 was Core i7-3540M CPU @ 3 GHz x 4, 8Gb RAM with integrated graphics NVC1/Mesa Intel HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2).
The 6540 is Core i5-4310M CPU @ 2.7 GHz x 4, 16 GB RAM, with integrated graphics OLAND (, LLVM 15.0.7, DRM 2.50, 6.8.0-107-Generic) Mesa Intel HD Graphics 4400
(IDK if any of that is relevant, but just in case...)
The 6540 is the successor to the 6530, and it's otherwise exactly the same in dimensions and screen size. What's interesting and slightly frustrating is that everything on the new screen is slightly larger. I can't be sure how much--maybe 5-10% bigger.
I don't see a way in Zorin to reduce the image size a little. Any suggestions to the why and how?
Before anything else, take a look at your screen resolution.
1. Via the Settings Menu (Recommended)
- Open the Zorin Menu (the "Start" button) and select Settings.
- Scroll down the left sidebar and click on Displays.
- If you have multiple monitors, click on the one you want to adjust in the preview area at the top.
- Click on the Resolution field. A dropdown menu will appear with all supported resolutions for your monitor.
- Select your desired resolution and click the blue Apply button in the top right corner.
- A confirmation dialog will appear. If the screen looks correct, click Keep Changes. (If it looks distorted or goes black, wait 20 seconds and it will automatically revert to the previous setting).
2. Quick Access via Desktop
A faster way to reach the same menu:
- Right-click anywhere on your empty desktop wallpaper.
- Select Display Settings from the context menu. This will take you directly to the resolution options.
Do You have Fractional Scaling active? You can check that in Settings>Displays.
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I've tried different resolutions, but they don't affect the size. I switched on fractional scaling, but there's not an option to make changes.
Just curious: the E6530 (Ivy Bridge) used the i915 Intel driver exclusively. Your E6540 (Haswell) has that "Oland" chip, which means you're likely running a hybrid graphics setup (AMD + Intel). The way the Mesa drivers calculate things, the physical dimension of the screen might differ by a few millimeters in the software's eyes, leading it to "helpfully" scale the icons up so they remain legible.
Does the screen look "blurry" at this larger size, or is it perfectly crisp, just big?
Here's another possibility - since you swapped the hard drive directly, sometimes a configuration file gets a bit "twitchy" with new hardware and triggers accessibility features. It might have trigger "large text" in the accessibility settings. Go to Settings > Accessibility and check.
One more option - You can force a change in the display size using Xrander in the terminal. This acts like a digital zoom-out.
- Open the Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T).
- Type
xrandr to check the name of your display (it will likely be eDP-1).
- Run the following command to "shrink" the screen by 10%
xrandr --output eDP-1 --scale 1.1x1.1
(Note: If the screen goes black or looks distorted, don't worry. Just restart the computer, and it will revert to the previous settings.)
Large Text was off.
I typed xrandr and got the following:
Screen 0: minimum 16 x 16, current 1366 x 768, maximum 32767 x 32767
XWAYLAND0 connected primary 1360x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 340mm x 190mm
1360x768 59.80*+
1024x768 59.92
800x600 59.86
640x480 59.38
320x240 59.52
720x480 59.71
640x400 59.95
320x200 58.96
1280x720 59.86
1024x576 59.90
864x486 59.92
720x400 59.55
640x350 59.77
I don't what the screen name is.
I tried running the command as
xrander --output XWAYLAND0 --scale 1.1X1.1 and got
`xrandr: failed to parse '1.1X1.1' as a scaling factor`
I suspect you get that error because xrandr was built for X (xorg). What happens if you change to 'Zorin on xorg' by clicking on the cog at login screen after selecting your username?
" There is no single official equivalent to xrandr for Wayland that works universally across all compositors, as Wayland protocols differ from Xorg. However, specific tools exist depending on the desktop environment or compositor:
- For wlroots-based compositors (e.g., Hyprland, Sway): The direct CLI equivalent is
wlr-randr , which handles display configuration and brightness.
- For GNOME : The standard tool is
gnome-randr (or the Rust reimplementation gnome-randr-rust ), which utilizes the org.gnome.Mutter.DisplayConfig D-Bus interface.
- For custom resolutions : Since
xrandr does not function natively on Wayland sessions, users often must switch to an Xorg session at the login screen or modify kernel parameters (e.g., video=DP-1:1920x1080@60 ) to force specific modes.
| Compositor/DE |
Recommended Tool |
Method |
| wlroots (Hyprland, Sway) |
wlr-randr |
CLI-based display management |
| GNOME |
gnome-randr / gdctl |
D-Bus interface (org.gnome.Mutter.DisplayConfig ) |
| Generic/Other |
Kernel Parameters |
Edit /etc/default/grub for permanent changes |
AI-generated answer. Please verify critical facts."
Yet another reason to ditch Wayland.
Just been notified by PCLOS Debian they have adopted XLibre to replace xorg/X11 on all bookworm and trixie isos.
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I agree with Swarf's suggestion. To change your "windowing" compositor from the default which is Wayland, to Xorg. Log out, then at the login window, select your user name. Before entering the password, look down and to the right and click on the "sprocket" icon. Choose the "Zorin plus Xorg (X11) option (however it is worded). Continue to log in.
The Xorg option will be invisible to you compared to Wayland and will remain the default unless you go back in the same way and change it. I and many others run on Xorg. It's a great option, and is especially good for solving hardware issues. Then go back and try xrandr again.
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Got it loaded to Xorg. Input xrandr. Got
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1366 x 768, maximum 16384 x 16384
eDP-1 connected primary 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 193mm
1366x768 60.02*+ 48.04
1280x720 60.02
1024x768 60.02
960x720 60.02
928x696 60.02
896x672 60.02
1024x576 60.01
960x600 60.02
960x540 60.02
800x600 60.02
840x525 60.02
864x486 60.02
700x525 60.02
800x450 60.01
640x512 60.02
700x450 60.02
640x480 60.01
720x405 60.02
684x384 60.02
640x360 60.01
512x384 60.01
512x288 60.01
480x270 60.01
400x300 60.01
432x243 60.02
320x240 60.01
360x202 60.02
320x180 60.01
VGA-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VGA-1-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Looks good, so I typed in
xrandr --output eDP-1 --scale 1.1X1.1
And got
xrandr: failed to parse '1.1X1.1' as a scaling factor
Typing xrander --help
did not help.
The error occurred because xrandr is case-sensitive when it comes to those scaling arguments. (Linux itself is case sensitive at the command line).
In the command line, X (uppercase) and x (lowercase) are treated differently. For xrandr, the multiplier must use a lowercase x.
Try this instead:
xrandr --output eDP-1 --scale 1.1x1.1