Newbie X problem

["Small, Bradley" <bsmall@new-breed.com>]

I just installed the (slink) Debian distribution. It worked ok and seemed to
be rather painless. I got lilo working even though I installed to a second
disk in my system... So what's my problem? Here goes:

I read the readme's and found that for my video card SiS 5597/5598 I would
need the 3.3.3.1 Distribution of XFree86, so I went to their ftp site and
D/L it. I followed the installation instructions and when I got done, I ran
XF86Config. This seemed to run ok, however, when all was said and done,
startx wouldn't show me anything on the screen. I could have lived with
that, as I might be able to troubleshoot it, however now when I try to boot
the system, it goes until I get he message that it is loading xfs and it
just sits there and does nothing further. I assume this is not normal.
However, the only advice I am getting from people on IRC is that I need to
reinstall. This would only be my 6th reinstall (as that thought already
occurred to me, and I had other problems earlier) but there should be
something I can do when I shell in from the rescue disk to bring this system
back to life.

Can anyone help me? Please?

Bradley