On Mon, Aug 21, 2000 at 06:13:05PM -0500, Mike Hicks wrote: > Jim Crumley wrote: > > > > Does anyone know if there is a hot key sequence for changing > > color depth in XFree86? In other words, is there an equivalent > > to control-alt-+/- (which changes resolution)? Or do I have > > to restart the xserver whenever I change color depth? > > AFAIK, you cannot change the color depth of a running server. There are > some servers that can run with multiple color depths (ie 8 and 24) (it > doesn't seem like this would be all that hard though..), but I'm not > sure if XFree can do that (it would probably only be a 4.x thing). I hope it is fixed in XFree 4.0.x . I am running Debian with 3.3.6, but I'll 4.0 a try once the debs get into unstable. I looked into the problem a little more and it turns out that the xservers shipping with most commercial Unixes don't have this problem. They do allow multiple color depths. (Take a look at the output of xdpyinfo on Linux and compare it to the output from a commercial Unix.) This is one of the reasons that the application (IDL) has gotten away with having this bug so long. So I added my name to a petition to fix this problem for Linux users. > However, you can run more than one X server at a time. Just get to a > command line and run > > `X -bpp 8 :1' (XFree 3.x) > > or > > `X -depth 8 :1' (XFree 4.x) > > Then, set your $DISPLAY variable with `export DISPLAY=:1.0' and run an > application (you may have to jump around between virtual consoles with > CTRL-ALT-F<n>) Yeah I may have to try that, though wasting memory on an extra X server is more than a little annoying. > > I have an application that only runs in 8 or 24 bit, but I like > > to run in 16 bit. 8 bit is just ugly (too many apps steal > > too many colors) and 24 bit is streaky with either the SVGA > > or S3V xservers and my video card/monitor > > at the resolutions I like to run at (1024x768 or 1152x864). > > I should ask if you're using up-to-date servers or not. It may be a bug > that has been fixed (maybe). Yeah the servers are up to date, and its a known shortcoming of XFree 3.3. I'll check into 4.0. Thanks for the info. -- Jim Crumley | crumley at fields.space.umn.edu | Work: 612 624-6804 or -0378 | --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: tclug-list-unsubscribe at mn-linux.org For additional commands, e-mail: tclug-list-help at mn-linux.org