Re: X Windows Problems

["Greg Wiley" <greg@orthogony.com>]

On Sunday, August 19, 2001 2:55 AM, pmkelly@swbell.net wrote:

> My ATI Radeon 32DDR video card is not on the
> list, and I'm not sure what kind of default to use for this.

While I have not tried X with the Radeon, I have
found that the current svga server works like magic
with ATI hardware.  Get the svga server with:

  apt-get install xserver-svga

and get the standard vga server (for the setup program)
with:

  apt-get install xserver-vga16

Then type 'XF86Setup', if it asks you about using
the current config, answer "no".

Under the cards section, don't use the card list but go
to the "Detailed" setup and make sure that the "SVGA"
server button is depressed.

Under the Monitor section, enter the horizontal and
vertical ranges (low-high) as found in your monitor
spec (you DO keep those, right?  :)  ).  If you don't
have the spec, choose one of the canned configs (just
make sure your monitor can do what you indicate it
can do).

Under the Modeselection section, choose the color
depth and resolutions you want.  Press "Done" and
see if it works.

If all is well, save the config.  You can re-run the
program to setup the mouse and keyboard stuff if
you want.

> Also, I believe I am configuring xdm (or something like it) to manage my
> windows.  I'm not sure if it has something to do with this or not, but
> everytime I boot up (even with an emergency backup floppy), the X-Windows
> tries to start up and the screen goes black again.

Until you get X running, remove the display manger with:

     apt-get remove xdm

and just use 'startx' for testing.

I hope this helps.

Take care,
  -=greg