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Contributor

Changing screen resolution in VM does not work in kde-plasma-desktop.

HI,

I installed Ubuntu (both Server and WS) versions as recommended in the testing guidelines v0.4.

Changing resolution all the way up to 3840 retina works fine in Gnome but when i login to Plasma the screen flickers and then reverts back to 1024 default resolution without accepting the selected resolution.

VMWare Tools is working, Wayland disabled and the kernel is upgraded to 5.14 as per the ubuntu instructions.

Hope anyone can help.

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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

This sounds like the same issue that was reported here on OpenSuSE. GNOME is able to resize the graphics resolution, but KDE Plasma can't (with the temporary "flash" to the new resolution but snap back to the original).

There appears to be a long-standing bug in KDE Plasma's ability to resize virtual graphics adapters that impacts not only VMware (on x86_64 as well, not just Apple Silicon)  but other virtualization platforms.

There is a workaround:

  • In the guest OS, open the System Settings app.
  • Under the "Workspace" category, select "Startup and Shutdown".
  • Select "Background Services" on the left hand side of the screen.
  • Scroll down the list of "Background Services" until you see "KScreen 2" under the "Startup Services" category.
  • Uncheck "KScreen 2" to disable it and stop the service using the pause button on the right if you see it running.
  • Log out and log back in again.

The session will start at the default 1024x768 resolution each time you log in, but you can now change it in System Settings under Hardware -> Display and Monitor -> Display Configuration. 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

I just verified that this workaround also works on Ubuntu 21.10. 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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Map
Contributor
Contributor

Confirmed that this workaround functions.

There are some concerns about usability by using this fix.

If you have set global scaling to 2-300% which is reasonable with a very high resolution it will be difficult to navigate the menus to locate the display resolution change option.

I think the next step is to look for a solution of a custom script that can be run at GUI start up that sets the resolution, replacing the job of the disabled service.

Is this bug already being tracked by the KDE development team so we can hope for a permanent fix?

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Map
Contributor
Contributor

Bug has been there a long time with no fix it seems.

 

https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?t=157213

 

This script with this code in the autostart folder will set your resolution as needed on login

#!/bin/sh
xrandr -s 1920x1200

 

 

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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

When answering a similar question in this community, I did some research to see if I could find any activity on this bug by the KDE developers. There did seem to be some fixes checked in within the last month or so but there’s no indication if they’ve been incorporated into a released build. 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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rm_bk
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

This works in Fedora 37 KDE straight from the box. KScreen can remain enabled.

What I don't understand is why/how it works. I'd like to figure it out because I have an AlmaLinux 9.1 installation where it does NOT work. I can kill KScreen as a workaround but then I lose scaling.

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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

It likely works in Fedora 37 because they're shipping a KDE Plasma version of 5.24.2 or later. The issue of the screen resolution change is due to a bug in KDE Plasma versions prior to that.

You might want to determine what version of KDE Plasma is in that AlmaLinux distro. If it's not 5.24.2 or higher, it has the bugs that require the KScreen workaround.

Please stop posting questions in this Fusion TP 22H2 forum. The Tech Preview release that was discussed here is over with the release of Fusion 13. This forum is no longer actively used or monitored.

You can ask about Fusion 13 (which runs on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs) on the production Fusion forum which can be found here: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion/ct-p/3005-home

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

I just installed AlmaLinux 9.1 and installed KDE Plasma using the instructions from this link:

https://www.linux.org/threads/installing-kde-plasma-on-almalinux-9-1.42978/

Screen resizing and scaling works fine for me in a Plasma session. I would suggest, however, that you use an X11 Plasma session. I've heard mixed results on how well Plasma plays with Wayland.

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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