Bug 531950 – www-client/chromium - add hidpi support

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description Bjoern Olausson 2014-12-07 22:06:17 UTC]

Chromium and respectively Google Chrome support HIDPI scaling for high resolution (laptop) displays.

The scaling really helps to improve the usability of the browser on high resolution displays.

Although this feature is not 100% perfect yet and bugs need to be squashed upstream, I would like to propose the introduction of the HIDPI use flag which should enable HIDPI support on applications which do support HIDPI scaling - like Chromeium/Chrome

Here's a patch proposal for the chromium 40.0.2214.10 ebuild:

--- /usr/portage/www-client/chromium/chromium-40.0.2214.10.ebuild       2014-11-19 21:00:55.000000000 +0100
+++ /usr/local/portage/private/www-client/chromium/chromium-40.0.2214.10.ebuild 2014-12-07 22:55:48.365333956 +0100
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ SRC_URI="https://commondatastorage.googl
 LICENSE="BSD"
 SLOT="0"
 KEYWORDS="~amd64 ~arm ~x86"
-IUSE="bindist cups gnome gnome-keyring kerberos neon pic pulseaudio selinux +tcmalloc"
+IUSE="bindist cups gnome gnome-keyring hidpi kerberos neon pic pulseaudio selinux +tcmalloc"
 RESTRICT="!bindist? ( bindist )"
 
 # Native Client binaries are compiled with different set of flags, bug #452066.
@@ -383,6 +383,8 @@ src_configure() {
        fi
        myconf+=" -Dffmpeg_branding=${ffmpeg_branding}"
 
+
+
        # Set up Google API keys, see http://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/api-keys .
        # Note: these are for Gentoo use ONLY. For your own distribution,
        # please get your own set of keys. Feel free to contact [e-mail]
@@ -472,6 +474,12 @@ src_configure() {
 
        third_party/libaddressinput/chromium/tools/update-strings.py || die
 
+       # Enable HIDPI scaling
+       if use hidpi; then
+               myconf+="
+                       -Denable_hidpi=1"
+       fi
+
        einfo "Configuring Chromium..."
        build/linux/unbundle/replace_gyp_files.py ${myconf} || die
        egyp_chromium ${myconf} || die

As mentioned, the HIDPI has some bugs like displaced context menues but the browser is way easier to use then with super small icons and fonts. So for now one has to decide for oneself: Super small fonts and icons hard to target and hit vs. some dislocated context menues :)

Cheers,
Bjoern

[Comment 1 Harold Anderson 2015-01-13 06:37:32 UTC]

I have added this to my layman overlay (hnaparst), in case anyone wants to use it.  I think Firefox looks better.

[Comment 2 Paweł Hajdan, Jr. (RETIRED) 2015-01-18 13:40:24 UTC]

Okay, please let me know if there's anything else left to be done here - I just don't have a display to test this with.

  18 Jan 2015; Pawel Hajdan jr <[e-mail]>
  chromium-41.0.2272.3.ebuild, metadata.xml:
  Add optional hidpi support, bug #531950 by Bjoern Olausson.