Author Archives: Markus Killer

Crisp Cendio Thinlinc sessions on high resolution displays (e.g. 4K)

For month I’ve been trying to get this to work and I finally found a solution, which is a lot easier than I initially thought it would be.

Problem: If you want to connect remotely to a Linux desktop (running thinlinc server) via thinlinc client, it has often been impossible to get the remote desktop working at the native resolution of a 4K display (3840×2160). In my case the highest possible resolution to choose from in the remote systems’ display settings was 1920×1080, resulting in a blurred linux desktop. While thinlinc still offered a superior remote desktop experience to all tools tested, the blurred display kept bugging me. My aim was to get the sharpest and most responsive Cendio ThinLinc sessions on high-resolution displays possible.

NB. The following workaround also helped me solve display resolution problems with other remote desktop clients (e.g. NoMachine).


Solution on Windows 11 and macOS with 4K external display and Mac retina display

(might also work on other high-resolution displays)


Step 1 – Set display scaling of the display(s) you want to use for your remote connection to 100% prior to initiating the remote connection

On Windows:

Right-click on Windows-Desktop and choose: “Display settings”. Scroll down to scaling and make sure that your system does not use “custom scaling”. Choose 100% from the drop-down menu. Alternatively, you can navigate to Windows Settings > System > Display settings to find the same menu.

(Screenshots are from a German version of Windows 11)

NB: If you are using more than one display, make sure to adjust scaling to 100% on all screens you intend to use for your remote connection. Also make sure that there is no “custom scaling” enabled.


On macOS:

On macOS, display scaling can be set under: System Preferences/Displays:

Choose the setting labelled “More Space” for native retina display’s resolution.

NB: If you are using more than one display, make sure to adjust scaling to 100% on all screens you intend to use for your remote connection.


Step 2 – Now, start thinlinc client and connect to your remote linux desktop:

(Don’t be discouraged by the tiny icons and font size, you can switch back to your normal scaling as soon as your thinlinc session is over.)


Step 3 – On the remote system, you now have the opportunity to choose your native display resolution and adjust scaling to a more convenient factor:

Related external posts:

Configure Cendio ThinLinc Server on Pop_OS!

In order to run ThinLinc Server on Pop_OS! An additional profile needs to be created

$ sudo nano /opt/thinlinc/etc/conf.d/profiles.hconf
default=pop
order=unity ubuntu gnome gnome-classic kde xfce cinnamon mate lxde pop  <-------
[... rest of file ...]
[/profiles/pop]
xdg_session=pop
name=Pop
description=The Pop_OS Gnome desktop environment
screenshot=
cmdline=
testcmd=
description_from_testcmd=false

For details see:

Overview multiple & single choice question editors

[Last update: 07/08/2023] (work in progress)

Moodle (https://moodle.org

Simplest possible form1 to enter your first MC question:

MS Forms (https://forms.office.com)

Simplest possible form to enter your first MC question:

Classtime (https://classtime.com)

Simplest possible form to enter your first MC question:

IsTest2 (https://www.istest2.ch)

Simplest possible form to enter your first MC question:

Canvas (https://www.instructure.com/canvas)

Simplest possible form to enter your first MC question:

ILIAS (https://www.ilias.de)

Respondus 4.0 (https://web.respondus.com/he/respondus)

to be continued (URL)


Footnotes

1 It would be possible to disable the HTML editor and only display text fields, but you lose the ability to include pictures/media in your questions.

Respondus 4.0

Respondus 4.0® is a powerful tool for creating and managing exams that can be printed to paper or published directly to Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace, Moodle, and other learning systems. Exams can be created offline using a familiar Windows environment, or moved between different learning systems. Whether you are a veteran of online testing or relatively new to it, Respondus 4 will save you hours on each project.

https://web.respondus.com/he/respondus/ [accessed: 27/05/2023]

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is respondus.png

https://ois.atu.edu/2018/08/respondus-4-0-test-creator-update/ [accessed: 27/05/2023]

Review:

Randomly generated physics exercises (moodle question bank)

This is a DLH (Digital Learning Hub, canton of Zurich) funded project, focussing on physics exercises which will result in slightly different values being displayed for each and every student (question type: Formulas with interactive JSXGraph3 graphs), making cheating / copying (home)work really hard and encouraging individualised practice. In addition, the STACK/STACK4 question types are explored.

Project description (in German):

https://dlh.zh.ch/hubnews/143-projekte/projekte-vorstellung/555-zufallsuebungen-physik

Demo moodle implementation (in German):
https://phys.bzu.ch/mdl/course/view.php?id=33