X colormap problem when viewed via Microsoft Remote Desktop

[jeff_schenck@att.net]

Jon, thanks for your suggestion.  Using the -nocompositewm option
fixed my problem.  If you'd still like a screenshot, I can send one if
the mailing list doesn't mind big attachments.  Basically, it looks
like the color map is wrong.  My terminal window background is
brownish-green instead of dark grey and font edges are fuzzy and
multicolored.  A plot window I created has incorrect colors but the
plot is legible.

Thanks!
Jeff

----- On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 05:54:07AM PST, Jon Turney wrote:

>On 29/01/2017 03:16, jeff_schenck@att.net wrote:
>>After a fairly recent update of cygwin, I now find that all my X
>>windows (xterm, emacs, etc.) have color and font problems.  Non-x
>>terminal windows are fine.  Windows 7 is running as a VM on an esxi
>>hypervisor, so I view it remotely with Microsoft Remote Desktop.  It
>>worked well on a previous cygwin release, but I don't have the exact
>>date when it changed.  Also, I don't think the problem is with MRD
>>because I see it with VNC also.
>
>Thanks for reporting this problem.
>
>"color and font problems" is a bit vague.  Can you upload a screenshot 
>somewhere which illustrates this?
>
>This is unlikely to be a problem with actual X colourmaps unless you 
>are using antique X clients which use 8 bit visuals.
>
>However, RDP can step down the display colour depth, whereas the 
>colour depth of an X server root window cannot change, which can cause 
>dithering to occur.
>
>Additionally, sometimes DirectDraw rendering to RDP doesn't seem to 
>work properly, for unknown reasons. (This is discussed briefly in [1])
>
>Since this has started 'recently', I guess it might be related to the 
>'-compositewm' option being turned on by default [2].
>
>So, you might try starting the X server with a limited colour depth 
>(e.g. '-depth 16'), or try the '-engine 1' or '-nocompositewm' options 
>[3].
>
>[1] https://x.cygwin.com/docs/ug/using-terminal-server.html
>[2] https://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-announce/2016-06/msg00045.html
>[3] https://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/cygwin-x-faq.html#q-command-line-args
>
>-- 
>Jon Turney
>Volunteer Cygwin/X X Server maintainer
>

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