[Info-vax] Monitor colors go strange

[John E. Malmberg]

Tom Adams wrote:
> On Sep 24, 10:02 pm, "John E. Malmberg" <wb8... at qsl.network> wrote:
>> Tom Adams wrote:
>>> On Sep 24, 11:21 am, tadamsmar <tadams... at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>> Sometimes, when you open an new decterm on the console, the colors on
>>>> all windows change.  We have one now where the colors turn orange and
>>>> black.
>>>> Here's the senario:
>>>> We have 3 decterms up and everything is normal.
>>>> Open another decterm and colors go orange/black.
>>>> Minimize that decterm and colors go back to normal.
>>>> Restore that decterm and colors to orange/black.
>>>> Does anyone have any ideas about what is going on?
>>> The colors also switch from orange/black to normal if you just change
>>> the focus to a different window and back.
>> Set the Decterms to use a shared color map.
>>
>> Your graphics adapter has a limited number of color palettes , and one
>> of your applications is using at least one color that is not on the
>> default color palette, so it is swapping them.  If you set the DECterms
>> to use a shared map, then it should minimized the problem.
> 
> I can set shared map under  Options > Graphics.
> 
> But when I save the Decterm options, it does not save te shared map
> option, so you have to do it every time you open a decterm
> 
> Do you know any way around that?

If I did, I have long forgotten it.  The setting may be in the window 
manager or the session manager.  I also seem to remember that the 
setting needs to be done before the DECTerm is launched because of the 
way that the palettes are allocated.

> Also, I don't think we were doing anything to use a color that was not
> already being displayed on the other decterms.

It does not have to actually use the color, it just has to reserve it on 
the palette.

I have only seen this on older graphics hardware, that is VAXStation 
2000s with 4 plane graphics adapter.  4 planes means that you only get 
16 colors.

If your graphics hardware is not that limited, then I would recommend 
looking over the settings for your graphics card in the DECW$PRIVATE_*.COM.

Looking on my DS10, the system default is for a shared color map.

-John
wb8tyw at qsl.network
Personal Opinion Only.