change colour depth

Question

How do I change the colour depth? It says online to edit the xorg.conf file, but I don't have that. I am running Debian XFCE on a Powerbook G4

Solution

Create an xorg.conf file by running Xorg -configure. Then edit the Depth entry in the Display subsection of the Screen section.

You can start an X server with a non-default depth by running e.g. startx -- -depth 8.

If you already have a running X server, pick a different display number (if the display you choose is already in use, you'll get the message “Server is already active for display NUMBER”). The default display number is 0. To indicate the display number, pass a :NUMBER argument to the X server. For example:

Xorg :1 -configure
startx -- :1 -depth 8

Comments

[Michael Durrant]

Me neither: $ sudo Xorg -configure Server is already active for display 0

[Gilles 'SO- stop being evil']

@MichaelDurrant See my answer to gadgetmo's question.