Re: How to set display depth in xdm?

["Daniel R. Killoran,Ph.D." <drkilloran@speakeasy.net>]

> Daniel R. Killoran,Ph.D. (drkilloran@speakeasy.net) wrote:
> >  When installing debian, I guessed wrong about the display depth.
> >  The xdm error log complains that the hardware cant support 24 bits.
> >  How can I change this to 8 bits?
> >  The man pages on xdm don't mention it.
> >
> >  Hardware:
> >
> >  Macintosh 9500 120 MHz ("Old World")
> >  Apple display card
> >
> >  Software:  debian linux 3.0r2  without the 01 upgrade
> >
> >  TIA,
>  > Dan Killoran
> >
Johannes Mockenhaupt wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 27, 2004 at 03:14:11PM -0400, Daniel R. Killoran,Ph.D. wrote:
>  > When installing debian, I guessed wrong about the display depth.
>  > The xdm error log complains that the hardware cant support 24 bits.
>  > How can I change this to 8 bits?
>  > The man pages on xdm don't mention it.
>
> That's because xdm merely starts the X server but doesn't configure it;
> you can reconfigure the X server with:
>
>  dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86
>
>
> Johannes


Mauricio Hernandez Z. wrote:
> Well, one of the good things of using UNIX-like systems is that there's always
> more than 1 way of doing/fixing things.
>
> I know there is a command
>
> $ dpkg-reconfigure ....  (something with x)
>
> but I always forget it. That command will present you with a friendly
> interface (the same you used to specify 24 bits)
>
> So, I end up editing this file manually.
>
> $ nano -w /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
>
> and look for a section like this...
>
> Section "Screen"
>         Identifier      "Default Screen"
>         Device          "Generic Video Card"
>         Monitor         "Generic Monitor"
>         DefaultDepth    16
>
> and just replace 16 for x depth.
>
> I hope it works for you.
>
> Regards from Chile,
>
> MHZ

Many thanks to both of you. Alas, before I could try it out, the 
whole system crashed on me.
Debian seems rather fragile - this is the 6th occurence this week. 
Each time, on the boot following a crash,
the system reports SCSI read errors and inability to read the inode blocks.
In this connection, I notice that it uses fsck to attempt to clean 
up, whereas I remember
reading somewhere that one should use "mac-fsck" or some such program.
Having, in my researches, picked up some bad vibes about the ext3 
partitions that the debian
formatter puts on the disk, I am going to use the Apple formatter to 
make linux preferred partitions.
Sorry to be such a pest - will let you know how it comes out.


Thanks,

Dan Killoran