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need 8bpp for game but 8bit gnome is too dark to see

I'm running amd64 squeeze. I recently installed a game through wine that requires 8 bit color mode. when gnome desktop runs normally (24bit) it looks fine but when I stop gdm and startx -- -depth 8 the desktop, menu's and everything appears so dark(brownish) that I have to be two inches from the screen to to make anything out.
I've searched google and here for gnome color palette but I can't find anything remotely similar to my problem. I'm not even sure if its a problem with gnome, x or the video card.
I'm running a radeon x600, and the xorg.conf (that I had to generate with xorg -configure) mentions the radeon driver and rv380 radeon x600 pcie
since I haven't installed the ati drivers I'm assuming its using the debian package one.

You can create a script to start the game, save it to some place like /path/to/start_your_game.sh, then you will be able to start this game from 24bit GNOME environment with this command:

Code:

startx -- -depth 8 :1 /path/to/start_your_game.sh

This will start a new instance of X server with DISPLAY=:1.0 & depth 8bpp. Then you will be able to switch back to GNOME using Ctrl+Alt+F7, and then again to the game via Ctrl+Alt+F8.

P.S. This is the theory, reality depends on the driver bugs.
P.P.S. You will likely get an authorization error, so you'll have to edit a config file. If you get it, look here:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...borting-512864

thanks for responding.
I made a script that starts the game, but when I run startx -- -depth 8 :1 /home/me/script/gamescript.sh
I get a fatal error: unrecognized option: /home/me/script/gamescript.sh
probably my fault, I'm still getting used to the command line
I can start the game up in 8bit mode using my original method but it looks the same as the desktop, probably because its a game that runs in windowed mode by nature.

Ah, my fault. Change it to this:

Code:

startx /home/me/script/gamescript.sh -- -depth 8 :1

options which go after -- are server options while path to executable is an option to startx.

ok using that command I get a blank screen, when I go back to the original desktop with ctrl+alt+f7 I find this in the terminal

Code:

X.Org X Server 1.7.6

Release Date: 2010-03-17

X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0

Build Operating System: Linux CompName 2.6.32-trunk-amd64 #1 SMP Sun Jan 1

0 22:40:40 UTC 2010 x86_64

Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-trunk-amd64 root=UUID=90e09

665-4700-4fa0-ba71-7912963a44bd ro quiet

Build Date: 05 April 2010 02:21:15PM

xorg-server 2:1.7.6-2 (Timo Aaltonen <tjaalton@ubuntu.com>)

Current version of pixman: 0.16.4

        Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org

        to make sure that you have the latest version.

Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,

        (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,

        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) uknown.

(==) Log File: "/var/log/Xorg.l.log", Time: Sun Apr 25 12:05:10 2010

(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"

NTSC PAL

 XRANDR name: VGA-0 

 Connector: VGA

 CRT1: INTERNAL_DAC1

 DDC reg: 0x60

 XRANDR name: DVI-I

 CRT2: INTERNAL_DAC2

 DFP1: INTERNAL_TMDS1

 DDC reg: 0x64

 XRANDR name: S-video

 Connector: S-video

 TV1: INTERNAL_DAC2

 DDC reg: 0x0

finished output detect: 0 

Unhandled monitor type 0

finished output detect: 1

finished output detect: 2

finished all detect

before xf86InitialConfiguration

Unhandled monitor type 0

after xf86InitialConfiguration

Entering TV Save

save TV timing tables

saveTimingTables: reading timing tables

TV Save done

disable primary dac

(EE) RADEON(0): Value for Option "DepthBits" must be 16 or 24

(EE) RADEON(0): [dri] RADEONInitVisualConfigs failed (depth 8 not supported). 



Disabling DRI.

disable primary dac

disable TV

disable primary dac

init memmap

init common

init crtc1

init pll1

freq: 108000000

best_freq: 108000000

best_feedback_div: 16

best_ref_div: 2

best_post_div: 2

restore memmap

restore common

restore crtc1

restore pll1

finished PLL1

set RMX

set primary dac

enable primary dac

disable TV

SELinux: Disabled on system, not enabling in x server

disable primary dac

disable primary dac

enable primary dac

disable primary dac

finished PLL2

finished PLL1

Entering Restore TV

Restore TV PLL

Restore TVHV

Restore TV Restarts

Restore Timing Tables

Reestore TV standard

Leaving Restore TV

wine: /home/user/.wine is not owned by you



waiting for X server to shut down error setting MTRR (base = 0xf0000000, size = 



0x08000000, type = 1) Inappropriate ioctl for device (25)

I'm guessing the following two lines are the important ones
(EE) RADEON(0): Value for Option "DepthBits" must be 16 or 24
(EE) RADEON(0): [dri] RADEONInitVisualConfigs failed (depth 8 not supported).

Yes, this means you aren't gonna get any acceleration with 8 bpp on your video card (unless you install fglrx drivers, but i can't say if they support 8 bit though). If your game doen't need any 3D acceleration, try using vesa driver instead of radeon (set it up in xorg.conf).

BTW, why do you think your game requires 8bpp? Maybe wine can emulate it successfully.

Also, have a look at this (xinit way is the way you have already tried):
http://wiki.winehq.org/256ColorMode?...orsWorkarounds

when I start the game up in 24 bit mode a window pops up that says "GFXCDSurface::create: Failed to create a surface"
according to the wine page for that game the way to get around it was to configure x to run in 8 bit mode.
I tried vesa drivers but any 8bit screen I start just comes up black and crashes after a few minutes.

that 256 color mode wine page is interesting, wish I'd found it before.
xephyr seems to work alrigt, the game gets past the "failed to create a surface" error but locks up. I guess I should take that up on the wine forums
thank you for your help