HiDPI Scaling (this time via -forcedesktopscaling) is broken once again

steamopen Steam clientDistro Family: NixOS

ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#10955 · opened 2024-06-05 by ri0t · updated 2026-02-20 · 6 comments · github

Rri0t 2024-06-05 github

Your system information

Steam client version: 1717294964 and previous 2 or 3 months
Distribution: NixOS 23.05 with KDE 5
Opted into Steam client beta?: Yes
Have you checked for system updates?: No
GPU: Nvidia

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Using -forcedesktopscaling 1.75 used to work to scale the UI to a readable state. Now it doesn't do that anymore and Steam is pretty much unusable (once again!) on smaller 4k screens. Please consider switching your development machines to 4k displays, the code looks much crispier that way, too ;-)

Steps for reproducing this issue:

Launch: steam -forcedesktopscaling 1.75
Observe it running with the tiniest fonts imaginable (more or less unreadable!)

Nnattyebola 2024-06-15 github

same for me, forcedesktopscaling parameter ignored

ubuntu 24.04
GNOME Shell 46.0
wayland
non fractional scale : 300%
Steam version : 1718305227

Nnattyebola 2024-07-02 github

in fact, it works for me
before I had to set -forcedesktopscaling=1.5 now it's -forcedesktopscaling=3
¯ \ _ (ツ) _ / ¯

Ttoupeira 2025-11-29 github

This broke for me too now with client version 1763795278, or maybe the GNOME update from 49.1 to 49.2.

I use Wayland with /org/gnome/desktop/interface/text-scaling-factor set to 1.25, and display scaling set to 100%.

Previously this scaling factor was used by Steam automatically if the setting "Scale text and icons to match monitor settings" was enabled, and could be overriden with -forcedesktopscaling or STEAM_FORCE_DESKTOPUI_SCALING. Now none of these methods work, but someone pointed out the new (?) "UI Scale" slider in Steam's accessibility settings, which does work and lets me set the correct scaling manually.

The only annoyance I have now is that the cursor size isn't scaled, I have /org/gnome/desktop/interface/cursor-size set to 48 but setting XCURSOR_SIZE=48 (or any other value) doesn't have any effect.

Also checked today's Steam beta, same behavior there.

Ttoupeira 2025-11-30 github

Oh nevermind my previous comment, this seems to be a current bug in Debian where gsd-xsettings isn't getting started:

Workaround is to run systemctl --user start gnome-session-x11-services-ready.target

Rromulasry 2025-12-01 github

I get this in Fedora Rawhide latest update: 4k

SShallrath 2026-02-20 github

Oh wow, this time it really got out of hand - starting steam changes the monitor DPI in XOrg, making all fonts of all applications tiny, not only steam itself.

Workaround: Set XOrg to a fixed DPI value instead of leaving it to auto-detect. Steam will still not scale, but at least Steam will not change the scaling of everything else.

Nothing extracted yet.