The easiest way I've found to do this (on a per-user basis) is to make a file in your home 
directory called .xserverrc and add the following line verbatim...

exec X -bpp 16

The alternative would to be to use whichever X configuration utility your distribution comes with 
(Xconfigurator for RedHat, SaX for SuSE, or XF86Setup for some others) which will edit the 
XF86Config file for your.

Or you could edit /etc/XF86Config manually and change the line that looks like this ( 
DefaultColorDepth 8) although you'd have to adjust the bit value (8) to whichever your current 
configuration defaults to.

Ray Schwamberger

>Is there any way to force X to use 16bpp for the >color depth?  I have a 16MB
>AGP TNT based Video card and finally got X up in >1024x768, BUT I only have
>8bpp.  It is that way in 640x480 and 800x600 modes as >well.  In my
>XF86Config file, I tried commenting out the 8bpp >entry for my display, but X
>would not even start up.  It said that I was missing >an entry for 8bpp.  How
>does the XF86Config file work?  Does it use the first >display option that it
>comes to?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

>Gene Dascher

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