Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Wed, 7 Sep 2005, David Moberg wrote:

> On 9/7/05, sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:
> > Regarding my newer Compaq 486 laptop with wd video, that needed a special
> > modeline:
> > It has 1MB video RAM and a DOS diagnostic program (whatvga2.exe) shows
> > that it works with 32K and 64K colors.  640x480 only.  LCD color.
> >
> > Chips and Technology/Paradise/Western Digital video
> >
> > Xvesa can't handle this chip - 4 colors only, and no arrow keys
> >
> > I now have it working with xsvga in 8-bit (256 colors) with a modeline
> > that David found for it, and Steven's XF86Config file, but if I substitute
> > 16 for 8 to try to get more colors, it says 16-bpp is not supported.
> >
> > How can I get 32K or 64K colors from this video chip in linux?
>
> I don't think it is possible.

Why not?  It has 1MB video RAM, and 'whatvga.exe' can display 64K colors 
with it in the test.

We are going to use it to download (via serial and parallel ports) and 
display true-color digital photos.  xli is acceptable in '240 colors' but 
it takes rather a long time to convert from the 24-bit color to 8-bit 
before displaying.

> > Do I need another modeline?
>
> The modeline has nothing to do with the number of colors.

So why cannot Xvesa or xsvga provide more colors with this chip?
Xvesa is only 2-bit and 8-bit is much nicer but I am curious.

> > xli displays in 256 colors quite a bit better than xv, but xv will also
> > display pnm format (which is the intermediate stage when editing with
> > netpbm).
>
> There is a viewer called 'display' (I think it is in one of the X packages)
> which can display several formats which xli cannot.

xv is adequate.

DOS 'display' on this computer is worthless, thinks we have 8-bit 
greyscale and can't even display that.
Are the two displays related?

We are leaving for a month on Friday so I guess we will live with 256 
colors, which look pretty good with xli (and really horrid in DOS).

> David

Sindi

keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org