Hi
I want to see xterm background color black. so I created a file in my home/dir

.Xresources

$ cat .Xresources
XTerm*bg: black

but that did not do it.

what do I need to do?

thanks

$HOME/.Xdefaults
if you don't want a color then
XTerm*colorMode: off

or you can start xterm -cm then it's mono

you can choose between 16 RGB color types all explained in man pages.
to test it you can issue the command:
xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xdefaults

for e.g. color 3 as darkred would be
XTerm*color3: darkred

you also can use the xtermset-Homepage from here
then you could for e.g. set a blinking red coursor like this
xtermset tc Red
and also use another title like this
xtermset title "Linux rocks"
and with xtermset bg you would change the backgroud.

hope you'll be happy then :-)

thanks,
I am not sure whats wrong with this, I created a file $HOME/.Xdefaults and in it I placed the lines;
xtermset bg: Black
xtermset tc: Red
xtermset title: "Linux rocks"

I tried without the colon and it complained it wants it, I tried with "*" between xterm and bg it did not change any thing when I issued either of the commands
[fred@localhost ~]$ xrdb -merge .Xdefaults
[fred@localhost ~]$ xrdb -load .Xdefaults

xtermset is a tool
you'll have to download and do this make install stuff ;-)

is there a known good repository to get the .rpm file or google and get what ever comes first in the list?

Here you can download it
http://freshmeat.net/projects/xtermset/
and then tar xzvf xtermset-0.5.2.tar.gz
cd xtermset-0.5.2
./configure
make install

then you can use the xtermset functions

You should also note that whenever you change your .Xdefaults you must restart x before it takes effect. That threw me for a loop when I first tried messing with colors in xterm.