yeah, did that. already have the software, its just the monitor configuration. Its kind of frustrating. cos no matter what configuration I set on the xf...config thing, the xserver can't detect a monitor.

It reports screen found, but not a usable configuration! I was like wtf?? I have a super cool screen and I have to degrade the settings to a VGA and it still says not a usable configuration.
Also the mouse won't work, the keyboard's caps key works but everytime I press it, the screen returns some "time out" message.

Done ranting. Maybe I'll get lucky and figure it out sometimes, or maybe I'll choose a more user friendly distro.

ARCH

Trust me. It's MUCH better than both. Have you heard about Pacman? Go read about it. Arch is amazing and FAST.

-G

I went to the Arch site and it looks pretty cool. I already install mandrake linux and I love it.

It is user friendly AND it saves an extra terminal (in redhat u can only run startx in a terminal other than 7, the terminal in which u run startx as well as the terminal 7 is taken. But in mandrake you can actually log in AT term 7).

ne ways, thanks for the suggestion, I'll most probably try Arch, and many other distributions just to make use have first hand experience with them.

Rock on!!! I'm too old to be saying that.......

Mepis is awesome!

Debian all the way!

Debian is more of a power-user installation than the RHs (especially pre-Fedora). It's very stable and fast.
Debian's native installer isn't user-friendly, so use a Knoppix hard drive install.
Just burn the Knoppix ISO, boot it, and in a shell prompt type sudo knoppix-installer.
It asks you a small series of questions, and in about 8 minutes VOILA! You have a complete Debian installation on your hard drive.

right now im kinda pised off at debian, i did a minimal install, didnt even go for gnome, but its too unconfigurable.

fluxbox doesnt come with some necesary utilities. and it screws around with my fluxbox menu, and it uses devfs which is already depricated. and it just semms bloated compared to slackware. at least redhat was successful at doing everything for me, whereas debian tries to do everything but fails.

the ONLY redeaming factor of debian is that it has a nice package system, I'll probably try debian again in a couple of years (assuming its still around)


I'm stuck in windows/IE right now but im gona go wipe my hard drive and reinstall slackware.

My suggestion is to install Debian using the Knoppix installer ... then apt-get dist-update using stable or testing packages ... and perhaps a few unstable ones.

I've yet to have a problem with the testing packages installed on my system, but I primarily stick with stable/testing.

This would, in the vast majority of cases eliminate the hassle of configuring the hardware manually.

Then when you've learned the ins and outs of Linux, migrate to Slack or Gentoo and compiled everything from the sources blindfolded with one hand tied behind your back.

well, being a tad newbish myself, i am not /sure/ if i can be of much help, but anyone who can help you will need to know a little more about your system.

the main things i can think of are:
what type of video card are you using?
what kernel-version are you running?
what version of X are you running?
(and maybe, depending on vid-card and X-version) what type of motherboard are you using?

eg, i am using an ati radeon 9600se
kernel-version 2.4.24
X4.3 doctored into Woody
motherboard: KX600 pro, which uses the KT600 AGP chipsets, which it would seem are compatible with the KT400 linux fglrx drivers.

basically dude, need more info. i hope i can help, but please don't hold me to it.
like i said, i am a tad newbish myself.

hmm, seems i have once again failed to notice that there are posts beyond the first page.
if you are still having troubles with the X-server though, i would still be happy to do my best to be of some assistance.

How I get KDE running:

apt-get install kdebase x-window-system-core

Wow, I posted this thread a long time ago, and people are still answering it. Just goes to show how many debian advocates are out there (or vice versa for redhat). I'm sure there are tons of other ways to solve the problem. linux is about problem solving and I enjoy problem solving, But to a linux-newbie, tweeking to make sure that x works is like asking a middle school student to do calculus - frustrating and not fun.

iI have compaq monitor FS740, pentium 4 CPU, nvdia Ge force 2 video card, creative sound card. thats about all I know cos compaq did not give me documentation. I only found out recently that you had to "ask" when u buy ur comp for em to give u the documentation.

Neways, I'm using mandrake right now, and it works. Thanks alot for the solutions to deb. If I run into trouble during a future deb installation, I'll gno where to look.