I think I just found out the real issue, and that information is not going to help you because it will contain seemingly random indicators depending on how I size my windows.
VMware Player, like most virtualization software, runs windowed by default, and that window is dynamically resizeable. Now someone in all their wisdom at Ubuntu apparently decided that the available scaling options depend on the current resolution. So when I keep the settings screen open, and start resizing the window, thus dynamically resizing the "monitor", I can see the available scaling options change in real time. At 3840x2075 (that's 4k minus the VMware window borders) I see the 100/125/175/175/250 selector, at 3480x1859 I don't even get any fractional scaling options, at really low resolutions all scaling options disappear. When VMware Player boots, it snaps to the default 1024x768 size. So that's the monitor resolution when the desktop loads, it concludes scaling is not allowed at that level, and resets to 100%, no matter what it was before the reboot. The real issue appears to be: scaling settings should not be modified based on resolution during boot. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to mutter in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1884754 Title: Fractional scaling not persisted in VMware Player Status in mutter package in Ubuntu: Incomplete Bug description: Related to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mutter/+bug/1825593, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1852860, but those report the issues are fixed. They also do not mention the VMware specific issues. Install Ubuntu 20.04 in VMware Player, install open-vm-tools (done automatically with Easy Install), go to settings, enable Fractional Scaling and select any non-integer value. Results: - The scaling is applied - After next reboot the setting is reverted to 100% ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04 Package: mutter 3.36.2-1ubuntu1~20.04.1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-37.41-generic 5.4.41 Uname: Linux 5.4.0-37-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.3 Architecture: amd64 CasperMD5CheckResult: skip CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME Date: Tue Jun 23 04:30:21 2020 InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-06-22 (1 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200423) ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm-256color PATH=(custom, no user) XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set> LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: mutter UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mutter/+bug/1884754/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
