Sun Microsystems Ultra 5, Service Manual

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D-2 Sun Ultra 5 Service Manual • February 2000
D.1.2 The Difference Between 8-Bit Mode and 24-Bit
Mode on Ultra 5 Onboard Graphics
When in 8-bit mode, an 8-bit colormap is available. A main drawback of the 8-bit
mode is colormap flashing. Because of the low number of colors, each application
typically uses all the colors in the map. If two applications assigned different colors
to the map, when one application is pulled into the foreground, the color map is
changed and the colors of all the other open application windows change (i.e., flash)
to use those in the map of the application just pulled into the foreground. The visual
classes available for the 8-bit mode are: PseudoColor, StaticGray, StaticColor,
GrayScale, TrueColor, and DirectColor. The 8-bit mode provides 256-different-colors
availability at one time. All of the applications that run on previous Ultra 5 on-board
frame buffers (PGX) are available.
When in 24-bit mode, a 24-bit colormap is available. The visual class available is
TrueColor. The 24-bit mode provides up to 16.7 million different colors available at
one time. The large number of colors available eliminate the colormap flashing.
However, some of the applications that assume an 8-bit colormap do not initialize in
24-bit mode.
D.1.3 How to Install PGX24 Graphics Software on
Solaris 2.5.1 HW:11/97
To load the Solaris 2.5.1 HW:11/97 PGX24 graphics software patch, patch 103792-15,
proceed as follows:
1. Become super-user on the system.
2. Go to the directory that contains the patch by typing
3. Install the patch by typing
4. Reboot the system.
5. Become super-user on the system.
# ./cdrom/sun_ultra_5_10_series_hw_ab/Patches/103792-15
# ./installpatch .