IRIX and Software

Hi Guys,

I picked up my first SGI machine which is a very nice Indigo2 SolidImpact, R10K @ 195MHz. I am currently running 6.5.22 and using an LCD monitor. The Indigo detects and configures 1280x1024 resolution but no matter what I do, I cannot get the desktop to switch to 24bit mode. I found a post showing what changes to make to the "Xservers" file and I have done that but I am still stuck in what looks like 8bit mode.

Any input would be appreciated.

So you set the display to 24 bits using xsetmon (a.k.a. "Graphics Back End Control") and you don't think it worked? What does `xdpyinfo | grep "depth of root window"` say?

Ok.. that is strange.. I just ran your command and it is showing "24 planes" as the bit depth.. but my desktop and icon quality didnt change. I still see the icons the same as they were before I switched to the 24bit configuration. There is no visible difference to my desktop before & after the configuration change.

Um, well, maybe when you thought it was 8 bit it was really 24? Maybe try setting it to a lower bit depth and see if you notice any difference...

That's what I did.. The icons and desktop had no visible change in appearance.

And you're sure the LCD display you're using can display 24 bit color?

some LCDs can only display effectively 18-bits of color, but none of them as far as I know would look like 8-bit.
To the OP: I'm not sure why you'd expect the icons to look different? The Indigo Magic desktop icons are neat because they are scalable, certainly not for being colorful. To see the difference between 8-bit and 24-bit root windows you need to display a picture or animation program into it.
Try giving an sgi .rgb file to bgpaste(6D). there are several other ways.

Since it's not quite clear what you tried to spot the difference between a 24 and 8 bit desktop or what version of IRIX you're using, I'd almost guess it's the icon antialiasing. Read these topics viewtopic.php?t=8899 viewtopic.php?t=1344 and report back which settings exactly have helped.

If that's not your problem,. are you using jpegs as backgrounds? I suspect you can still save a small bit of memory by converting them to 256 color PNGs (or XPMs), e.g. with pngquant or pngnquant from nekoware /beta.

My thought was that the VFO file the OP is using to communicate with his LCD might be borked...

When Indigo Magic was made the base SGI machines were 8-bit (Indigo LG(x) and Indy Newport-8). It's designed to look OK on an 8-bit display.

If you put a 24-bit image (a gradient is a good test) on the root window as wallpaper it should look 24-bit.

Apologies for my ignorance.. This is my first SGI machine and while I am familiar with other "Unix/Linux" O/S I was expecting the desktop to change when switching from 8bit to 24bit. I "expected" that the icon pack would switch to a higher quality and when nothing changed I assumed it wasnt switching. My other issue is that my LCD has a native resolution of 1600x1200 and the SolidImpact graphics only support 1280x1024 so that is partially to blame for the "unsharp" fonts I am seeing.

I confirmed that X is actually running in 24bit mode. Sorry for the confusion.

Using a Video Format Object file that's custom crafted for your LCD can make a significant impact in the quality of the display, see for example: http://forums.nekochan.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16725909&p=7344752&

Hey, no problem! We're all enthusiasts and happy to help. Don't be a stranger, and don't forget to check out the NekoWiki for lots of useful info - especially the Indigo2 page , I just added a bunch of stuff there the other day.

I appreciate this tip. As soon as I settle on the final hardware list for my Indigo2 I will go through this procedure as well to get the best possible experience.



Thanks! I definitely have more reading to do.. lol..

bitcpy isn't the first new-to-IRIX member to have asked the when-is-24-bit-really-24-bit? question. SAQ's suggestion to use a 24-bit gradient to confirm the change took effect is a good one. Perhaps we should consider adding a sample gradient file to the True Color wiki . It could be made extra new-user friendly by including screen shots of what the gradient would look like in both 8 and 24-bit mode.

Hi,

The first real difference i saw when i switched to 24bit was the "console icon"
see attached pic.



TOM:-)

As a newbie, I say this is a great idea. If there was a point of reference it would of been very helpful.

Are you sure that the minimized Console icon is related to the depth of the root window and not the default visual?
I may be wrong on this, but my understanding is that minimized icons display in their own separate windows.

Hi robespierre,

No i am absolutely not sure but it was the only difference i saw on my Indigo2 (beeing a newbie myself ...)

TOM:-)

Ya, good idea, that's a section of the wiki I haven't looked at yet. And something FAQ-like would be good, new or expand what's there. I've run myself ragged this past month tuning up the car club's web site, but hopefully soon...