Set Color Depth to 16-Bit

[Redmage913]

Greetings,

I'm trying to decrease the color depth to 16-bit in an attempt to increase the efficiency of one of my wine programs (Starcraft).

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have little experience with Xubuntu (running 9.04), and have no idea where to look to change this setting.

Thanks,
Redmage913

[Diabolis]

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

In the section "Screen" add the line DefaultDepth 16 so it will look similar to this:

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
	Device		"Configured Video Device"
        DefaultDepth    16
EndSection

Then restart the xserver by loging out and then loging in.

[Redmage913]

When I type in the gksudo command, the terminal sits for a few seconds, then it displays another prompt. nothing happens.

Any suggestions?

--Red

[4Orbs]

Since you are using xfce, your text editor is probably mousepad rather than gedit. Just replace gedit with mousepad in the above command.

[Redmage913]

Thank you much!

Quick question though - is gksudo different than sudo? This is the first time someone suggested to me to use the gksudo command.

I just made the edits, and will be restarting the computer to see if it took effect. Is there any way of verifying that it is indeed 16-bit?

--Red

[stwschool]

Gksudo just makes that graphical prompt for your password come up where sudo asks for it in the terminal. Other than that it's the same.

[Redmage913]

Also, if I want to change back to true color, should i set the color depth to 24 or 32? I've read they're virtually the same thing and the last 8 bits are empty or something like that...it was in technical-ese so I didn't quite understand it

[4Orbs]

Use gksudo when you need admin access to an app with a gui. Use sudo when you are using only the terminal. Once you are using the 16 bit depth, it should be obvious because the colors will be greatly reduced. The desktop won't look as sharp and as nicely colored as it does with 24 bit.

[Redmage913]

Well, if that's the case, I am unsure if it worked. The desktop looks the same to me, along with firefox. I checked my favorite webcomic (PLUG: Questionable Content), and it still looks the same.

Here is the xorg.conf file where I edited:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
DefaultDepth 16
EndSection

[Shig]

Running the following command in a terminal is a good way to see what BPP your display is running at:

xdpyinfo | grep "of root"

The grep "of root" bit simply filters the output of the command, you can run xdpyinfo by itself to get a lot more information if you wish.