> Up until now I've been a strictly PC only guy.  I'm trying to get XFree86
> working on my SparcStation4 right now.  It runs fine, I get WindowMaker
> all nice and good, but the display is 8bit only.  I've changed the symlink
> of /usr/X11R6/bin/X to point to /usr/X11R6/bin/Xsun24 and it still runs in
> 8 bit color.  Anyone know how to make it run in 24 bit, or even if a
> SparcStation 4 can?  I noticed that there's no xf86config program with the
> sparc packages.  There's also no /etc/XF86Config file.  Any clues?

The Sun X servers are somewhat differently organised to the PC ones.
Basically, most Sun graphics cards (up until the recent PCI Ultra's) are
fixed frequency, colour depth and resolution.  Some have a two (maybe
three) settings for frequency and resolution.  The Sun standard is 1152x900
resolution and 8bit colour depth.  Some older 1bit cards also did 1600x1200
and some newer 8bit cards do 1024x768.

So, your VME-based or sbus-based Sun will have a 1, 8 or 24bit card of
fixed resolution and colour depth.  The Sun (badged possibly) monitor is
matched to the graphics card.  The mouse is also standard.  That's most (all?)
of the settings in your XF86Config file dealt with.  The X server only needs
to test for a few (known) settings to determine the card parameters, thus,
no need for a config file.

If you want 24bit colour on your SparcStation 4, you'll need to get a 24bit
graphics card.  I'm not sure of the status of support for these.  Someone
else does, hopefully?  (While I'm here, what are my choices for 24bit in a
20?).

J

PS. 1152x900, 8bit is the maximum you can get out of 1Mb of video memory.

-- 
                    My other computer also runs NetBSD
                          http://www.netbsd.org/