I have booted up for the first time with my Jetson Nano 2GB and find that the text on the Nvidia desktop and menus to be so small that I am unable to read it and find where to increase the size. I am using a 42" Sony 1080p LED via hdmi. The desktop icons seem to be the standard size but the text and all menu’s and their accompanying text is too small to read. I have tried using gsetting in the terminal to increase the text from a factor of 1.5 to 2.5 and it has no effect on the text size.
I have the same issue, we don’t see any difference after change every font size under Customize Look and Feel option. Tried multiple times.
Also noticed this occurs only when we select auto login option while installing the OS.
Can you try checking your DPI with xdpyinfo | grep dots ? Mine is 96 (what is actually reported is 93x95)
It seems like some TVs have a lower default DPI which makes the fonts appear smaller. You can change this by adding -dpi 96 in /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-xserver-command.conf.
Results of ‘xdpyinfo | grep dots’ - “resolution: 30x30 dots per inch” What is the text editor for this OS? I tried to edit the file you suggested with Nano but it didn’t come up. I literally can’t read any of the labels to figure out what app is what.
Where is [Preferences] → [Customize Look and Feel] ? I am unable to read anything to figure out where that is. Can you give me a hint? Is it in the “Start” menus? Thanks for the help on this by the way, I really do appreciate it…
Mine was 75 75, the text seem to appear crisp after changing to 96, but the size of the text remains same.
Just to be clear the Desktop icon text can be changed under Desktop Preference.
But the start menu text is what too small.
I am attaching a screenshot for reference.
For me, if I go into Start Menu -> Preferences -> Customize Look and Feel and then increase the default font size, it makes the start menu items bigger.
SUCCESS!!! Thanks everyone! You all were a big help collectively. The screenshot helped me feel my way to the ‘Customize Look and Feel’ window. (Couldn’t even read the text enough to find it without the screenshot) Then everyone else pointing that and advising me to change the font size there fixed everything.
Quick Update: I got a bigger SD card and reburned the OS on it and realized that the first SD card was burned with the 4GB Jetson Nano image but I have the new 2GB Jetson Nano. Don’t know if this contributed to the problem with the small font, but the font thing didn’t happen on the new SD card. Just mentioning it if some one comes here and it does contribute to the problem. Could be completely unrelated.
Can you try checking your DPI with xdpyinfo | grep dots ? Mine is 96 (what is actually reported is 93x95)
It seems like some TVs have a lower default DPI which makes the fonts appear smaller. You can change this by adding -dpi 96 in /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-xserver-command.conf .
For more info, please see this post: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/jetpack-4-4-1-production-release-with-l4t-32-4-4/158279/14?u=dusty_nv
Hi Dusty,
I see some1 reported this again, and probably others will too. Can NVIDIA fix this in the future, so new users have an easier onboarding to the with the Nano learning kits?
We have tested this on TVs internally but have been unable to replicate the issue, sorry about that. It seems limited to some models of TV - we will look into it further.
@dusty_nv
If you want I can setup SSH access towards my Nano 2GB (starting from Thursday) and give NVIDIA full access for a few hours starting from 2PM Santa Clara time.
I had the same problem, Jetson nano 2 GB, fresh install connected to a TV and the letters where too small to read (the same size as the pixels).
I could figure it out, with the solution discussed, but as I was new on linux too, the information given here is not enough to solve it easily. So, I will try to explain in detail what I had to do.
We can use the image of the desktop given on “suhpavn” comment as a reference.
First let’s check our DPI settings.
Open the icon with a screen to access a command tool.
Type “xdpyinfo | grep dots" to check, I had 25x25, we want to change it to 96.
Changing DPI:
Open the icon with a folder
-Type on the address bar “/usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/” and enter to access the folder
There are like 6 files, the last one is the one we want to open, open it and check if the name is “50-xserver-command.conf”
At this point I had a problem, because the file is read only, you can see this after the file name, or when you try to save it. If this is the case follow step 3 too.
To change DPI we have to add “-dpi 96” to the “xserver-command=X -core” line like this “xserver-command=X -core -dpi 96” .
Save and restart the Jetson. (Open the bottom left bar, click on the last element, and search for the restart icon). Should be solved after the reboot.
If the file “50-xserver-command.conf” is read only (Step don’t needed otherwise).
We have to change the permissions of the file with root permissions.
Open the command tool again.
Type “cd /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/” to go to the file folder
Type “sudo chmod u=rw,g=rw,o=rw 50-xserver-command.conf” ( sudo executes the chmod(or any) command with root access).
The command tool will ask for the user password, type it.
Permissions should be changed. now you should be able to finish the step 2.
( You can check permissions of the file with the command “ls -l 50-xserver-command.conf” ( at command tool, when you are on the correct folder) u is for User, g is for Group, o is for Other. w → write, r → read, wr-> write and read)
( - If you want, you can revert the permission changes, follow this step but use “sudo chmod u=rw,g=r,o=r 50-xserver-command.conf” )
I hope it will help. I will try to improve the details if needed
I changed my account type to admin, I don’t know if it’s needed too.
It worked perfectly for me in Jetson Nano 4GB B01(2020+) model .
If you didn’t get how to solve this bug with first comments, with miguelcasanovamorera explanation you will do it quickly. He refers to terminal with command tools term
And other bug was that for me doesn’t gave me the option to change font size in “Customize Look and Feel” menu. Senkiu veri mach Miguel jajaja.
Weird…I have the exact OPPOSITE issue, I have a Nano 2GB hooked to a Samsung 1080 LED TV through an HDMI/DVI port and the fonts are HUGE. The setup looked fine, but when I got to the Nvidia home…YIKES.
(Luckily, the tip above about specifying your DPI does the trick)
