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Ethereal-users: [Ethereal-users] Unable to start ethereal (pallette problem)

Note: This archive is from the project's previous web site, ethereal.com. This list is no longer active.

From: Tom Emerson <osnut@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 07 Jun 2002 00:25:35 -0700
I've know about ethereal for some time; used it on occaision; finally
decided to load it up under windows and got what I believe is a rather
pointless error -- no support for 256 colors!

Now, having used this in the past [and knowing it comes from a
unix/terminal/non-gui background] I cannot fathom why the progran would need
more than 16 colors, let alone 256!  [black & white for text, grey for
backgrounds, and maybe half a dozen for "highlights"...]

It turns out that due to a bug I haven't bothered to track down, this
particular system will NOT change the screen colors/resolution -- I'm stuck
with 640x480x256.  Since all I use this system for is e-mail and terminal
[telnet/ssh] access to other mainframes/hosts, I haven't had much need for
anything beyond this, so as I said, I haven't bothered to "fix" this
problem.

is there a compelling reason why the program requires more than 256 colors?
I'll go out on a bit of a limb and guess it might be due to using a
third-party gui library (qt?), in which case I'll retract any flame-like
comments I might be thinking of at the moment.  OTOH, if it is sheer
laziness on the part of the programmers, well, let's just say I can't think
of an appropriate cutdown at the moment :)

Tom Emerson

diclaimers, etc.: please respond direct -- I haven't subscribed [already on
too many other lists, this would be more clutter for just one answer] and I
*DID* make a pass at the archives [only to find they are far from "easily
searched" -- my eyes aren't what they used to be...]  If this HAS been
addressed in the past, a direct link to the message/thread that answers this
question would be appreciated.