mixed-background type fonts are screwy

I've been playing with starting an xemacs on a tty and then using make-frame-on-display to create an X11 one, but have been running into some fun coloration issues. If I explicitly specify colors as attached to frame-types, things work well: '(modeline ((((type x)) (:background "lightblue" :foreground "black")) (((type tty)) (:background "brightblue" :foreground "white"))) t) If I rely upon frame-background-type, the right thing does not happen. The colors are those of the original mode. (i.e. if the first frame is 'tty-frame (and I generally use a black background in a terminal) the background-type is dark.. My 'x-frames are light colored, and have a light background type. (get-frame-background-mode (get-frame-for-buffer (current-buffer))) returns appropriately on each evaluation even if the same buffer is displayed in two frames. A simple example of a mode that relys on light/dark is hyper-appros. '((((class color) (background light)) (:foreground "darkred")) (((class color) (background dark)) (:foreground "gray90"))) But sadly, it doesn't render the colors properly. (I'm happy to poke at this more, if someone can suggest where to poke.) Thanks! -R