Bug 395476 - The minimum window size of System Settings is too big for a 1366x768 screen
Summary: The minimum window size of System Settings is too big for a 1366x768 screen
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: systemsettings
Classification: Applications
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: 5.21.3
Platform: Other Linux
: HI normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Plasma Bugs List
URL:
Keywords: usability
: 404513 406113 409559 409903 421938 427939 431110 434616 443263 444146 453118 453508 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2018-06-16 05:37 UTC by trmdi
Modified: 2023-08-25 14:34 UTC (History)
18 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In: 6.0
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
The minimum size is too big. (315.73 KB, image/png)
2018-06-16 05:37 UTC, trmdi
Details
screenshot (69.76 KB, image/jpeg)
2019-07-16 17:27 UTC, Alexander Potashev
Details
Display Configuration on 640x480 (25.54 KB, image/png)
2021-10-05 05:55 UTC, Dominik Kummer
Details

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Description trmdi 2018-06-16 05:37:36 UTC
Created attachment 113365 [details]
The minimum size is too big.

It should be smarter in automatically sizing, or let the user resizes more freely without that minimum size.
Comment 1 trmdi 2018-10-27 05:46:36 UTC
Is there any reason for limiting the minimum size ? That looks ugly on low resolution screens.
Comment 2 Christoph Feck 2018-10-30 19:27:36 UTC
The systemsettings window does not resize itself when switching pages, and with a too small size, some modules are shown with a scrollbar. Additionally, the new 'sidebar' mode has better usability when there is room for two columns plus the settings pages.

I agree, though, that limiting the minimum size is not user friendly. It could pick the large size as a default, but allow the user to make it smaller, especially for those that use the 'icon view' mode, which does not need the full width. Also with the recent trend to center KCM pages, with a too wide window the user will need to travel more.
Comment 3 cybea 2018-11-01 23:58:29 UTC
I agree that minimum size (of 1154px on my system) is too big. I have a 1920px width screen and use a lot of window width of 960px (side by side).

And this is quite possible with System Settings window by dragging the window to one edge of the screen and it works well with this window size (width 960px). Now you can also increase width and go back to 960px.

But if you switch "Workspace Theme -> Look and Feel" from Breeze to Breeze Dark (or vice versa) the window enlarges to its "minimum" size. If the window was attached to the right edge of the screen then the right window border (and the apply button...) jumps off the screen.

- kde-neon
- konsole 18.08.2
- KDE Frameworks 5.51.0
- Qt 5.11.2 (built against 5.11.1)
- plasmashell 5.14.2
Comment 4 cybea 2018-11-02 00:18:49 UTC
Suggestions for solutions for scroll bar problem (which is not grave for me):
1. At lease using my default(?) font size [Noto Sans 10] there is probably enough space to cut from left navigation if you remove "(GTK)" from "Gnome Application Style (GTK)"

2. Improve views with scrollbar
I checked every view (in my setup) and found not so many horizontal scroll bars:
- VIEW [-> SUBVIEW]: POSSIBLE FIX
- Icons -> Emoticons: buttons for theme options and single emoticon options in same line
- Application Style -> Gnome Application Style (GTK): "GTK Themes" and "Behaviour" could be placed below each other
- Shortcuts -> Global Shortcuts: (no ad-hoc idea)
- Notifications: line break for long descriptions
- Connections: make list appear as submenu since Connections itself has no submenu
- Input Devices -> Touchpad -> Taps: why is it? - I can center and scrollbar gets needless
- Multimedia -> Audio CDs: Only "Names" tab needs reorganization
- Power Management -> Energy Savings: "[] Even when an external monitor is connected" could be reworded or placed to the right (does not look good anyways)
- Printers: like "Connections"
Comment 5 Christoph Feck 2019-02-18 12:20:50 UTC
*** Bug 404513 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 6 Christoph Feck 2019-04-03 13:29:02 UTC
*** Bug 406113 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 7 Nate Graham 2019-04-03 15:16:56 UTC
*** Bug 406113 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 8 trmdi 2019-06-15 03:17:15 UTC
In Windows 10, when you horizontally decrease the Setting window until some point, the left panel will be hidden. They also limit the minimum size, but that size is much smaller compared to KDE, that looks much better.

Can we apply this?
Comment 9 trmdi 2019-06-16 14:20:36 UTC
(In reply to trmdi from comment #8)
> In Windows 10, when you horizontally decrease the Setting window until some
> point, the left panel will be hidden. They also limit the minimum size, but
> that size is much smaller compared to KDE, that looks much better.
> 
> Can we apply this?

Something like Discover can do now.
Comment 10 Patrick Silva 2019-07-08 19:03:09 UTC
*** Bug 409559 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 11 Alexander Potashev 2019-07-16 17:27:53 UTC
Created attachment 121557 [details]
screenshot

And this minimum size may not be enough with hiDPI and scale set appropriately, see screenshot.
Comment 12 Christoph Feck 2019-07-18 05:18:20 UTC
*** Bug 409903 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 13 Nate Graham 2019-07-20 02:20:44 UTC
In practice, the way we'll end up fixing this is first by porting all KCMs to use the new style, which is both more compact, and also more responsive to different window sizes and shapes. Once that's done, we can reduce the  minimum size accordingly.

Or at least, all the KCMs that are currently unnecessarily enormous, like the energy saving KCM.
Comment 14 Patrick Silva 2020-05-23 01:05:42 UTC
*** Bug 421938 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 15 Nate Graham 2021-01-04 20:46:44 UTC
*** Bug 431110 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 16 Nate Graham 2021-03-19 13:54:32 UTC
*** Bug 434616 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 17 Nate Graham 2021-03-19 14:50:26 UTC
Here's the list of KCMs that have a bad layout when you forcibly tile the System Settings window to the right or left side of a 1080p screen:

Window Decorations
Font Management
Window Behavior
Task Switcher
Shortcuts
KRunner
Web Search Keywords
Users
Accessibility (lol)
File Associations
Network Connections
Keyboard
Power Management
Removable Devices

So there's still a lot of work that needs to be done before we can make the window narrower by default, unless we make the sidebar hide itself automatically. However that's a pretty bad UX on the desktop since you would need to be manually showing it all the time every time you wanted to switch categories.
Comment 18 Till Schäfer 2021-03-25 08:16:17 UTC
While I still think, that the kcms should be fixed to fit 1366 pixels in widths, I still think that the proposal to hide the sidebar on very small widths is very useful. I think of it like it is often the case for mobile apps with a hamburger symbol on top that triggers an overlay with the navigation. Furthermore it might be even possible to introduce some scroll bars as a last resort. 

All the solutions in combinations seem to be important to me since there might be other use cases that require the systemsettings to be smaller in width than 1366px, e.g., 
1. ppl having a panel on the sidebar,
2. large scaling factors for ppl with disabilities, or
3. very small screen width in virtual machines (e.g. 800x600).

Furthermore, wayland seems to enforce window geometries more stricty, such that maximizing / tiling a window does not shrink below its minimum size and that causes the window to reach out of the screen (see Bug 434615). This makes scrollbars the better alternative (although I do not like them very much).
Comment 19 Till Schäfer 2021-03-25 08:20:04 UTC
One further thought: Instead of auto hiding the sidebar with a hamburger menu on top it might be possible to just display the kcm and a back button, such as a folder up action. Thus, you only show navigation or the kcm in this case but do not have an overlapping panel.
Comment 20 Till Schäfer 2021-03-25 08:22:28 UTC
> 1. ppl having a panel on the sidebar,
I mean a plasma panel here that further reduces the screen width.
Comment 21 Nate Graham 2021-03-25 18:39:32 UTC
1 is unlikely since you would need a truly monstrous panel thickness to impact this.

2. and 3 are legitimate use cases though.
Comment 22 Paul McAuley 2021-04-02 20:25:38 UTC
(In reply to Till Schäfer from comment #19)
> One further thought: Instead of auto hiding the sidebar with a hamburger
> menu on top it might be possible to just display the kcm and a back button,
> such as a folder up action. Thus, you only show navigation or the kcm in
> this case but do not have an overlapping panel.

This is already possible, and is the default on OpenSUSE. Configure->View Style->Icon View. I think this is a better default than KDE's as showing the sidebar is just showing too much information at once and can be overwhelming, especially more likely so for new users.
Comment 23 Nate Graham 2021-08-29 17:45:25 UTC
*** Bug 427939 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 24 Nate Graham 2021-10-04 23:39:38 UTC
*** Bug 443263 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 25 Dominik Kummer 2021-10-05 05:54:19 UTC
Once I was stuck with the second screen only, unable to 'Apply' the display settings. I randomly found that just closing the window asks me to 'apply/discard', but anyway it can lead to bad experience for users with limited resources (exclusive accessibility).
Comment 26 Dominik Kummer 2021-10-05 05:55:12 UTC
Created attachment 142160 [details]
Display Configuration on 640x480
Comment 27 Nate Graham 2021-10-21 13:36:07 UTC
*** Bug 444146 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 28 Nate Graham 2022-05-03 18:13:32 UTC
*** Bug 453118 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 29 Nate Graham 2022-05-09 17:11:18 UTC
*** Bug 453508 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 30 Nate Graham 2023-08-05 14:15:58 UTC
Update on the KCMs that look bad when side-tiled to a 1920x1080 screen:

Font Management
Window Behavior
Task Switcher
File Associations
Network Connections
Power Management

So a lot less! If we make good on our plan to make Font Management a standalone app in Plasma 6, that's just 5 of them left.
Comment 31 Nate Graham 2023-08-25 14:25:59 UTC
Looks like we can reduce the main window to 930x680 without regressing anything, though (down from 1020x700). So let's do that.
Comment 32 Nate Graham 2023-08-25 14:27:58 UTC
Git commit 004580056925f96271c0c6c4cc70099e33530973 by Nate Graham.
Committed on 25/08/2023 at 16:26.
Pushed by ngraham into branch 'master'.

Slightly reduce main window minimum size

We can take it down from 1020x700 to 930x650 without regressing
anything.
FIXED-IN: 6.0

M  +1    -1    app/SettingsBase.cpp

https://invent.kde.org/plasma/systemsettings/-/commit/004580056925f96271c0c6c4cc70099e33530973
Comment 33 Nate Graham 2023-08-25 14:29:03 UTC
That is now done for Plasma 6. For further improvements (such as "hide sidebar at narrow window sizes") please submit new bug reports/feature requests. Thanks!