Remote Access Question
 

Hi all,

I'm very new to linux. Please be patient with me if my question is stupid enough.

I need to remote log in to my school Unix machine from my Mandrake 9.2 machine at home. The server only allows ssh to do the remote access. So, all I do is

ssh remote.host -l username

Then type the password. Everything is fine. I can open netscape and other stuff. But when I start a gui program, a error shows up: "Failed to find 8-plane PseudoColor visual"

I was told that I need to change the color display to 8-bit. So, I change my desktop color to 8-bit and reboot the system. Then, I do

ssh -X -C remote.host -l username

I start the gui program and everything goes right although the color display is kind of crappy. After I'm done with the program, I change the color back to 24-bit and reboot the system.

My question is if there is an easy way to do that without rebooting my system? The reason I ask is that my friend who uses a Mac G4 laptop can do it very easily. All he does is to type the following in a terminal.

X11 -depth 8

He said it changes the color depth to 8-bit. And then an new terminal pops up. Type the ssh command in the new terminal and everything is set. GUI is running without problem. I tired to find a simular option in linux. Anyone have any suggestion?? I really don't like to reboot my system everytime I need to use the program.

Thanks in advance!!

:newbie:

You can certainly change the resolution without rebooting. All you have to do is restart X by logging out and then logging back in. Unfortunately, I don't think you can change the resolution without restarting X so you will have to close all your programs in order to do it. Unless someone else knows of a smart solution?