How to get more than 16 colors in X?

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[pcm2a]

I have DSL 4.11rc2 installed on a Compaq LTE Elite 4/75mhz.  Win98 runs with 256 colors @ 640x480.

I run xsetup.sh and I select Xvesa, 640x480, 8bit.  However when starting up with startx it tells me that it's using default or previous settings and it looks like I'm getting 16 colors....pretty terrible.  I look in the .xserverrc file and it looks ok.

Also, most things that I run from inside X, like to shut down, pop up the box and then it immediately closes out.  Is this because of the colors also?

[pcm2a]

I got X working but something is funky with the colors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDyM30gsENI&feature=em-upload_owner.

[pcm2a]

Also, how do I set it to not start x when I log in?

[CNK]

Have you tried setting the Xserver to Xfbdev with the X Setup utility (boot with the "xsetup" command)?

[pcm2a]

I couldn't get xfbdev to work at all.

This is from the DSL wiki:

For older hardware (e.g. WD90C24 chipsets) the xf86_svga server from XFree V3 can be used with a suitable xf86config file. See the post XF86_SVGA[5] in the forums for more details on this option. A valid xf86config file for your system will be required. Try Google to find one. Note that the XFree configuration utility in the repository is for XFree V4.

The Compaq LTE Elites have that chipset, so I'm using that XF86_SVGA and a XF86Config file.

[CNK]

Perhaps you could try starting X with the command "startx -- -depth 8" in case it is for some reason using four bit colour by default. If that works you should be able to permanently change the settings in your xf86config file. See the man pages for details.

[pcm2a]

Using "startx -- -depth 8" does the same thing as starting up normally.  The background shows up and looks great and then fades into botchedness.

I thought under Section "Screen" where I have Driver, Device, Monitor and "Depth 8" is what is supposed to set that.  As a test I tried commenting out the "Depth 8" and starting up with:
startx -- -depth 4
startx -- -depth 8
startx -- -depth 16
Same results as above in all cases....so apparently I don't know how to set the depth if it doesn't take from the XF86Config or the command line.

Update, when I start x with XF86_SVGA one of the printed out lines is:
(**) SVGA: Using 8 bpp, Depth 8, Color weight: 666

I wonder what that color weight is.

[CNK]

The man page (http://www.xfree86.org/4.3.0/XFree86.1.html) says it sets the balance between the RGB colours. This seems like it might be the anwser, however it also says the setting only applies to bpp 16 drivers, so it shouldn't do anything. Perhaps this is the reason it is set to a non-default value.

[pcm2a]

It looks like that is the normal weight for 8bpp.  I found some cool stuff to try here, http://www.savs.hcc.edu.tw/~chuavv/xconfig/xconfig.htm, but nothing that changed anything.

[CNK]

Going slowly though your video, I see now what you mean by the colours "fading into blotchiness". Perhaps it is some driver bug where colour data is getting messed up. Perhaps try disabling the background image in case the image display software is causing a problem. Or maybe try changing to fluxbox as the window manager.

Pure guess work of course, but perhaps worth a try?

Of course it could be a bug in the graphics driver itself.

Oh, and thanks for that webpage, its gone straight to my bookmarks.

[pcm2a]

I see lots of forum posts where users with this same laptop have gotten XF86_SVGA working with the Compaq LTE's.  I didn't find any with DSL specifically but I would think it wouldn't matter.

Fluxbox works well, but the colors are still botched.  I'm not sure how to set "no" wallpaper, any ideas?

[CNK]

I just tried commenting out the one line in the file ".jwm.inc" in "/home/dsl" and it stops the wallpaper loading.

The kernel used in DSL might be different to other distros along with X components, so I think a bug could still be surfacing here. If you can use DSL-N, it might be worth trying that.

Perhaps you could also see something in the Linux logs (in /var/log).