[MCL-10940] Launcher does not scale properly on Linux, affecting HiDPI displays

When using the Minecraft launcher on Linux, the launcher does not scale its content according to the system's display scaling factor. According to user reports, this affects multiple Linux distributions, desktop environments, and windowing systems.

Impact

Users with HiDPI displays have extreme difficulty viewing and navigating the Minecraft launcher. Since the launcher does not scale properly according to the display scaling factor, the size of content is very small. For example, text with a 12px font size would be 4px on a typical 4k 13.3" laptop with 300% scaling (equivalent size as 150% scaling on a 1080p 13.3" display).

How to reproduce

Set a display scaling factor on your Linux distribution that is not 100%. For example, on Linux distributions with the GNOME desktop environment, go to Settings > Displays > Scale and set it to 200%.
Open the Minecraft Launcher.
→ ❌ The scale of the launcher content does not match that of the system. On HiDPI displays, the text size is unreadable and the interface is difficult to navigate.

Notes

~~If I remember correctly, this is an upstream issue with CEF. However, I can't seem to find a relevant~~ ~~issue report~~. This does appear to be an upstream issue. When using the latest beta build of the CEF sample application (94.2.2+g0c2cc26+chromium-94.0.4606.50), the scaling of the content is not correct on a HiDPI display.
In launcher versions prior to 2.2.2159, the content was scaled correctly. However, the resolution of the window was not changed, causing it to appear blurry. See MCL-16405.
Since launcher version 2.2.2159, the size and resolution of the window are set properly, but the content scale is not. Try running the launcher with GDK_SCALE=1, GDK_SCALE=2, and GDK_SCALE=3. Notice how the window size grows, but the content size does not.

Linked issues

is duplicated by 3

MCL-11246 Launcher doesn't scale on 4K display Resolved

MCL-11558 Scaling is all wrong on UHD 4k monitors - Linux Resolved

MCL-21633 UI scale is so small that text is unreadable on Ubuntu 20.04 Resolved

Attachments

Captura de tela de 2021-07-02 19-20-24.png

Captura de tela de 2021-07-02 19-20-33.png

Captura de tela de 2021-07-02 19-23-28.png

$minecraft-launcher-hidpi-fractional-scaling.png$

Screenshot from 2024-07-06 11-21-47 (Copy).png

Comments 27

petr.mrazek 2019-06-27T08:14:00Z

We updated the CEF libraries in the current version. Does it help with this in any way?

migrated 2019-06-27T10:40:07Z

I can reproduce the issue in 2.1.5411.

migrated 2019-06-28T01:01:43Z

Issue still occurs. Uploaded new screenshot

migrated 2019-07-27T23:09:21Z

Happens for me too, attached screenshot.

[media]

migrated 2020-01-27T16:59:39Z

The latest version now scales correctly for me!

LAUNCHER

2.1.11314

Friday, January 24, 2020, 12:16:41

fc8d393d4bab76d2a7800e9ca5be84aae62dfbd5

17 more comments

galaxy_2alex 2020-04-19T04:25:01Z

Is this fixed for everyone or do some users still have this issue?

migrated 2020-08-02T06:12:08Z

In KDE Neon with fractional scaling (125%) with X11 not working with Minecraft Launcher

Link!minecraft-launcher-hidpi-fractional-scaling.png!

migrated 2020-12-20T03:47:05Z

Same here, KDE X11 with 150% scaling on arch linux.

It doesnt scale properly

Bytzo 2021-03-02T01:43:13Z

Starting from launcher version 2.2.2159, I am experiencing this issue again. I think this issue affects all Linux versions of the launcher, not just the Debian one, since I have experienced it on other Linux distributions. If it is helpful, I am using X11 and Mutter. I have attached a screenshot of the issue on version 2.2.2159.

[media]

migrated 2021-03-22T10:37:22Z

I have just updated to the last launcher version, and now I wish I hadn't..

I now also have this issue. 😞

Kubuntu 20.04

The launcher version I used was pretty recent, maybe the version before.

migrated 2021-07-02T22:24:30Z

I'm running launcher 2.2.3200 and I have the same issue.
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS -> Monitor: 4K(3840x2160) with 175% of scale DPi.
Se more details on screenshots attached.

[media][media][media]

NeunEinser 2021-07-30T21:17:56Z

Gave ownership to @unknown, as they have been the one updating it through Discord requests recently.

Bytzo 2021-08-03T06:16:18Z

Updated the issue summary, as the issue affects more than just the launcher Debian package. Also updated the issue description with more details.

Bytzo 2021-09-19T07:35:11Z

This is most likely an issue with CEF. In the latest beta build of the CEF sample application (which you can download from https://cef-builds.spotifycdn.com/index.html), the scaling is not correct on a HiDPI display.

Bytzo 2021-09-19T18:33:48Z

Passing the --force-device-scale-factor argument should allow for the scaling to be manually overridden in CEF applications. This works with the CEF sample application and is used in the Spotify Flatpak to support HiDPI displays.

However, this does not appear to work with the Minecraft Launcher. Running minecraft-launcher --force-device-scale-factor=2 has no effect on the scaling of the application. This still does not work when executing the CEF binary directly (located at .minecraft/launcher/minecraft-launcher) with the argument.

Because of this, I don't think there are any current workarounds for this issue. If possible, having the ability to set the --force-device-scale-factor argument could be a temporary workaround until a proper fix exists upstream.

Arisa Bot 2021-11-22T23:52:44Z

⚠️ Please do not mark Unreleased Versions as affected. You don't have access to them yet.

_{-- I am a bot. This action was performed automatically! If you think it was incorrect, please notify us on}_Discord_or_Reddit

migrated 2022-03-30T00:17:56Z

Commenting to mention that this is still an issue in the newest version of the launcher (2.2.11697) and Linux Mint (20.3), and that the CEF --force-device-scale-factor workaround still does not work either.

migrated 2022-07-28T19:30:01Z

Still an issue on 2.3.280 with Pop!_OS 22.04.

migrated 2022-11-04T02:35:18Z

Still an issue on 2.3.462-1.1.32 on Pop!_OS 22.04

migrated 2022-12-27T22:24:52Z

Had this issue on Ubuntu 22.04 on version 2.3.549

migrated 2023-05-16T21:31:40Z

Linux Mint 21.1 Cinnamon and the issue persists, the text is literally unreadable and it looks like there's nothing to do except pray that someone will fix this

Bytzo 2023-12-30T02:49:00Z

This issue might be fixed with the latest versions of CEF. According to this commit which removes HiDPI-enabling code in CEF for Windows, Chromium was changed to support HiDPI by default. When testing the latest cefsimple sample application on Fedora Workstation 39, everything seems to be scaled properly. So, sometime in between whatever version I tested 2 years ago and the latest version of CEF, HiDPI support on Linux was fixed. The fixed version of CEF might be around or before April 2023 based on the time the commit linked above was made: I am unsure of the exact version this was fixed since building one version of CEF takes several hours on my machine making a bisect impractical.

migrated 2024-02-03T07:24:05Z

To make text slightly more readable, in the launcher go to Settings > Launcher Accessibility Settings > Make Text Bigger

ArduFish123 2024-07-06T08:29:20Z

Can confirm in

Launcher
Linux 6.8.0-36-generic 2.26.2

Tuesday, June 4, 2024, 9:58:40 PM

99e6702334ad55fcb28703d4477da6590206c72a

[media]

ArduFish123 2024-07-06T08:34:24Z

This seems like a CEF issue and should be reported at https://github.com/chromiumembedded/cef/issues

Bytzo 2024-08-23T06:30:42Z

As of version 2.29.15, the launcher seems to be scaling correctly when using Fedora Workstation 40 at 200% scaling. Is anyone else able to confirm that this is issue fixed?

SkytAsul 2024-08-24T20:21:57Z

The issue is no longer happening with version 2.29.15-1.12.5 on Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon at 125% or 200%.