This is probably caused by other programs that already run and which occupy too much entries in the X color map - leaving not enough for TCM. Especially Netscape hogs up all the colors when it starts up. You can best start up TCM first because it takes only what it needs, and then start up Netscape and the other greedy beasts. Netscape can also be started with the options -install for using a private color map or with -ncols <N> to set the maximum number of colors that it uses. When TCM cannot find any colors (on a color display) then it starts with a private color map. When you start TCM with the options -priv_cmap, it always uses a private color map.