Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 08:12:26 -0700 (PDT) From: David Wolfskill <dhw@whistle.com> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, kalan@support.droid.viper.net.au Subject: Re: Netscape problem Message-ID: <199810011512.IAA09995@pau-amma.whistle.com> In-Reply-To: <199810011002.UAA01282@support.droid.viper.net.au>
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>Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 20:02:31 +1000 (EST) >From: Justin Priestley <kalan@support.droid.viper.net.au> >Warning: Cannot allocate colormap entry for "#C0C0C0"\ >Cannot allocate colormap entry for default background >What causes this as it has never happened before? Well, frame buffers (or video cards) have limited amounts of memory. The amount of memory allocated per pixel depends on your "color depth", and the number of pixels depends on the resolution you're using. A common way to reduce the memory consumption is to use a smaller "color depth" -- 8 bits/pixel (or 256 distinct simultaneously displayable colors), even though the number of possible colors that may be specified is 2^24 (16 777 216). But in order for this to work, it's necessary to allocate a (fairly small) amount of memory in the frame buffer for a "colormap table" -- basically, an array of 24-bit colors, indexed by an 8-bit value. The default mode is that all applications share a colormap; if you're looking at a Web page that is sufficiently rich in color variations, the Web browser can consume all available colormap entries (remember, there are only 256, if you're using an 8-bit "color depth"). You could increase your color depth, but you may need to either use a frame buffer with more memory, or use a lower resolution. Or you could invoke netscape with the "-install" option, which tells it to use its very own private colormap -- but this means that as the mouse goes between the netscape window & other windows, you will see a phenomenon called "color flashing" (as the display switches between the netscape private colormap & the global one). david -- David Wolfskill UNIX System Administrator dhw@whistle.com voice: (650) 577-7158 pager: (650) 371-4621 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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