[techtalk] XFree86 Configuration Problems

[Ryan Thibodeau]

Hi Michelle,


I feel your pain. Every time I upgrade my Linux machine its like a crusade
to get the video card to work properly .This is one of the drawbacks of
using Linux with cutting edge technology, often  the correct drivers simply
don't exist yet. However, you might just be able to get this thing working.

It sounds like Xconfigurator isn't writing the XFree86 configuration file
correctly. The error messages you listed in your post are actually portions
of this file (/etc/X11/XF86Config, my apologies if you knew that already).

A few things to try, if you haven't already:

1. In Xconfigurator, don't allow linux to probe for the card (select "don't
probe") , this will allow you to configure the card yourself. You should be
presented with a list of video cards. Select "Unlisted Card" at the bottom
of the card list. This should prompt you for various video card options such
as amount of video memory available, in your case with a new card you should
probably pick the highest memory amount presented. When Xconfigurator asks
you what server you want to use, pick SVGA, if this option is not available,
this may be your problem. You can download the latest XFree86 SVGA server
rpm from Redhat. After you have selected the SVGA server you will likely be
presented with a list of screen resolutions and bit depths, I usually pick
the lowest possible settings just to try to get things working, if it works,
you can always reconfigure and bump up the settings. After you have selected
your settings, Xconfigurator should write the settings to
/etc/X11/XF86/Config. Type startx and cross your fingers.

2. If you can't get it to work with the SVGA server, you could try VGA 16
color mode until you get it figured out. 16 color mode most certainly bites,
but its better than nothing. This can be done by following the steps above,
but selecting "VGA 16" in the box where you selected "SVGA".

3. Try starting X in various bit depth modes:

	startx -- -bpp 8

	startx -- -bpp 16

	startx -- -bpp 24



If any of these things work, great. If not, post again, and we'll get really
crazy with thing and start editing the config file.



Ryan Thibodeau
IT Specialist
Athens Newspapers, Inc.
rthibode at onlineathens.com