Hey everyone! I'm currently using Xubuntu 25.04 and I'm facing a bit of a challenge with my display settings. I can easily select 144Hz on Windows 10, but when I switch to Xubuntu, I'm limited to 4K at 120Hz and can't find an option for 144Hz no matter the resolution I choose. I'm not sure if my system is using Wayland or Xorg, which complicates things since I don't know if I can use XRANDR to configure it or not. It would really help to know which one I'm using, as that might narrow down my troubleshooting options. I like Xfce a lot more than Ubuntu, but I really want to get this working since switching between the two operating systems makes the text so blurry at 120Hz. Any insights would be greatly appreciated! If it comes to it, I'm open to changing my OS, but I'd like to avoid that if possible. Thanks in advance!
2 Answers
Xubuntu operates on the Xfce desktop environment, which generally runs on Xorg right now. Unfortunately, the support for modern hardware on X11 can be pretty bad. I’d recommend switching to a more modern distro that supports Wayland, like Fedora or maybe Arch Linux for a bit more control. You could try booting into a live session of Fedora to test if everything works out for you there right away!
Hey! So it sounds like you're running into some HDMI 2.1 limitations on Linux. One quick fix could be to swap your HDMI cable for a DisplayPort one if that's an option. That might help you get the 144Hz working on your setup.
Totally get where you're coming from. I'm aware that HDMI 2.0 can still support 144Hz at 8-bit color with certain chroma subsampling settings, so it’s kinda frustrating. Good luck; I'm thinking of switching OS too!
Thanks for the input! I do love XFCE so I might miss it, but I’m ready to dive into other distros. Plasma sounds interesting, and if you have any recommendations for the latest kernel versions, I’d really appreciate that. Mine needs to be version 6.13 or higher for optimal performance with my 9070!