Chrome UI scaling issue on XFCE 4.20 (Tumbleweed, Intel GM45)

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1

Hello everyone,

I’m experiencing an issue with Google Chrome UI scaling on a fresh install of openSUSE Tumbleweed running XFCE 4.20.

Hardware:

  • CPU: Intel Pentium T4500
  • GPU: Mobile Intel GM45 Express (Integrated)
  • Display: Laptop panel, 1366x768

The Problem: The Chrome interface (tabs, address bar, menus) looks oversized, as if a high DPI scaling (like 1.5x or 2x) is applied automatically. However, my system DPI is set to 96 in XFCE Appearance settings. Other GTK/Qt applications display correctly at 1:1 scale.

Details:

  • I am using the standard xf86-video-intel (or modesetting) driver.
  • The issue persists even after restarting the session.
  • Launching with --force-device-scale-factor=1 fixes the issue temporarily, but I’m looking for a way to understand why this happens on Tumbleweed + XFCE 4.20 specifically.

Is there a specific environment variable or a flag in XFCE 4.20 that might be triggering this behavior for Electron/Chromium apps?

Thanks in advance for any help!

2
  1. First question … is this Chrome, or Chromium? If it’s Chrome, where do you install from? Using the Google-specific Repo(s)?
  2. Have you tried this … create a new user account that has not been used before… then logout (your user) and login as the new user and test Chrome - any difference?
3

It is Google Chrome. I prefer version 109 because it performs better and feels more stable on my setup. I installed it directly from the official Google repositories.

Regarding your suggestion: I have already tried creating a brand-new user account, logging out of my current session, and testing Chrome there. Unfortunately, the issue persists even on the new account, so that didn’t resolve the problem.

4

If this is true, your system can be considered compromised.
Chrome 109 was released January 2023. It seems you willingly disabled or removed the Chrome repository. Without repo, Chrome does not update.

Unless you properly update your system to a secure and up to date version, nobody here can help you.

Zusammenfassung

Adding the official Google Chrome repo:

sudo zypper ar -f https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/rpm/stable/x86_64 google-chrome

Adding the signing key:

sudo rpm -import https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub

Force the installation from the official repo:

sudo zypper in -f --from google-chrome google-chrome-stable
5

WHOA !! At first I didn’t pay attention to the version, but I checked mine:

Version 144.0.7559.109 (Official Build) (64-bit) … I use the [native] Google repos.

Your version Chrome 109, was released in Jan 2023 !!
Personally, I would NOT be running that version (or maybe I missed something in my old age :slight_smile: )

Here’s my browser repos (Chrome and Brave):

:~> zypper lr -d

#  | Alias                       | Name                 | Enabled | URI
---+-----------------------------+----------------------+---------+--------------------------------------------------------------------
 2 | brave-browser               | Brave Browser        | Yes     | https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/x86_64
 3 | brave-browser-beta          | Brave Browser - Beta | Yes     | https://brave-browser-rpm-beta.s3.brave.com/x86_64
 4 | google-chrome               | google-chrome        | Yes     | https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/rpm/stable/x86_64
 5 | google-chrome-beta          | google-chrome-beta   | No      | https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/rpm/stable/x86_64
 6 | google-chrome-unstable      | google-chrome-unstab | No      | https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/rpm/stable/x86_64
[...]
6

Does this mean you tried both, or think you are using both? Both cannot be loaded at the same time. Best overall results with iGPU as new as GM45 usually come from xf86-video-intel not being installed.