[gdal-dev] how to create an image with a colortable?

[Samantha Goodchild-Brown]

I need to change a greyscale image to Palette and specify the colors to 
use for specific values.

However I am getting very confused with all the 'comments' and 
references and instructions

eg.
In " 
http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/FAQRaster#Howtocreateormodifyanimagecolortable" 
it is explained how to edit a VRT to make a new tif with a color palette 
of your choice.
However in later 'fishings' I saw someone mention that this doesn't work 
and that the only way to do it is with scripting or programming.

I am now also trying as it seems to be the simplest method but I am also 
failing.

Other tickets etc that come close are in the region of 4 years old etc 
and way over my head.

Besides the obvious (gdal error messages), can anyone tell me why this 
is happening? what I need to tweek? if a fix is on the way? is it still 
valid that the only workaround is with scripting?
Does anyone know of another open source method that doesn't involve 
scripting?

Many thanks
Sam