Over in bug 451562 there is a comment about manually adding files
to the ~gdm/.gconf directory tree, basically to make it look like
you've run the gnome appearance app to set the default dpi to 96
manually. This did indeed seem to work for me, but it was an
awful obscure way to get there :-).

The more interesting question is why your x server thinks that it should lie about the dpi of the monitor.

The server isn't lying. The monitor is a 42" diagonal 1920x1080 HD
LCD display. If you calculate the actual DPI you get something like
52 or 54 DPI. That is indeed the correct value, but that means for
something like a 10 point font, it uses about 4 pixels - not enough to
render a readable font. Since "viewing distance" or "angular diameter"
aren't configurable X parameters, forcing a different DPI is simplest.

(I pity the person that has a 52" or 60" display, they will be down
around 1 pixel for most font requests and don't stand a chance of even
beginning to guess what anything says so they can grope their way to
the font config dialog :-).

Thanks for the bug report.  We have reviewed the information you have provided above, and there is some additional information we require that will be helpful in our diagnosis of this issue.

Please attach your X server config file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) and X server log file (/var/log/Xorg.*.log) to the bug report as individual uncompressed file attachments using the bugzilla file attachment link below.

Could you please also try to run without any /etc/X11/xorg.conf whatsoever and let X11 autodetect your display and video card? Attach to this bug /var/log/Xorg.0.log from this attempt as well, please.

We will review this issue again once you've had a chance to attach this information.

Thanks in advance.

Created attachment 321560 [details]
My most recent Xorg.0.log file

This is from the last time I booted. Note that I've got the nvidia driver
installed, and have copied the font config info from my ~/.gconf to ~gdm/.gconf
so I can actually read the login screen with this setup :-).

Created attachment 321561 [details]
the matching xorg.conf file for previous log attachment

Here's the xorg.conf file I'm using with the nvidia driver.

Created attachment 321566 [details]
Xorg.0.log when running with no xorg.conf file

After I figured out I needed to disable the nvidia service so it wouldn't
create a new xorg.conf file on me, I got this log from starting X with no
xorg.conf file.

My current theory on the sudden size change (which I don't see anymore
now that I have the font config info copied to ~gdm/.gconf/...) is that
gdm got started before gnome-settings-daemon and used default info
(which might mean 96DPI) until it was poked by the settings daemon
starting, then it switched to accurate DPI info (which looks horrible).
(But that's just my theory, might have nothing to do with anything).

Given comments, changing bug component.

This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora 10 development cycle.
Changing version to '10'.

More information and reason for this action is here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers/HouseKeeping

A friend of mine is experiencing this bug since he updated his monitor to a new 16x9 LCD.

But I only see the small fonts after the gnome user login (seems okay on the password / user select page).

However I set in the display properties larger font point sizes.

This indeed fixes this, the setting are saved.

Upon the next restart its back to tiny again.  However you look and its still set the the larger font point size.

You then reselect the same point sizes and exit and it fixes the issue, until the next restart.

So the changes are being ignored and overwritten on login is my guess, and you have to manually override this my reselecting the already large size.

It should not need the 1 point size font increase anyway to begin with, so the issue is the same.

Yes and it is Fedora 10 and latest packages from updates-testing!

libgnome-desktop will force the dpi to 96 now (as of F12 at least).