*BSD News Article 92963


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From: rone@bofh.noc.best.net (Ron Echeverri)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: X color limitations? Why?
Date: 6 Apr 1997 13:43:33 -0700
Organization: fidgety systems administrators gmbh
Lines: 29
Message-ID: <5i91tl$ntg$1@bofh.noc.best.net>
References: <3346929F.15FB7483@javanet.com>
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In article <3346929F.15FB7483@javanet.com>,
John D. Szumowski <harpo@javanet.com> wrote:
>Although I have a working knowledge of (just) using X, I am unfamiliar
>with it "under the skin".
>Anyways, I am using Xfree86 3.1.2 under FreeBSD and wonder why I cannot
>get >256 colors with my cirrus logic 5428.
 The readme file states that
>64k and true color are impossible on isa (i have a compaq presario
>850...bleah!) with >=16 megs of ram. (I have 16 installed)
>Why is this so? Why isn't windows so limited? Most importantly, is there
>anything I can do about this short of buying a new video card? FVWM is
>ok, but Afterstep is much nicer, IMHO, but it eats up colors like crazy
>in 256 mode.
>any thoughts/solutions would be appreciated.
>thanks.

First off, i'd recommend upgrading to Xfree86 3.2.  Second, have you
tried to start X with a -bpp option?  Try something like

    startx -- -bpp 16

That should start it with 16-bit pixel depth (64K colors).

rone
-- 
Ron Echeverri         Best Internet Usenet Administration         rone@best.net
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