hi
i have a S3 prosavage 8 onboard graphics accelerator card and a hp pavilion mx70 monitor, when i "lspci" i get the following regarding the card..
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Inc. VT8375 [ProSavage8 KM266/KL266]
i have installed debian 3.0r1 woody and it gets me to the command prompt, however when i type startx it gives the following error
---------------------------------------------------
Total Memory: 495 64Kb banks (30M)
(EE) VESA(0): No matching modes
(II) UnloadModule: "vesa"
(II) UnloadModule: "ddc"
(II) UnloadModule: "int10"
(II) UnloadModule: "vbe"
(II) UnloadModule: "vgahw"
(II) Unloading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libvgahw.a
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

---------------------------------------------------------------------

i had selected "vesa" during installation as my card was not listed. my hardware works fine with other distros of linux even older ones like redhat 7.3 . i know the XFree86 version i have is an old one but downloading and installing a new one would be the last option since working on the command prompt never works for me.
please help

It is a problem with the configuration. Run
dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86
and choose different values.

If that doesn't work, try posting your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file

hi again
i tried dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 then i went and tried each and every driver and each and every combination of setting but it doesnt seem to work. i am posting my /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file here
hope it helps
------------------------------------------
### BEGIN DEBCONF SECTION
# XF86Config-4 (XFree86 server configuration file) generated by dexconf, the
# Debian X Configuration tool, using values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the XF86Config-4 manual page.
# (Type "man XF86Config-4" at the shell prompt.)
#
# If you want your changes to this file preserved by dexconf, only make changes
# before the "### BEGIN DEBCONF SECTION" line above, and/or after the
# "### END DEBCONF SECTION" line below.
#
# To change things within the debconf section, run the command:
# dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86
# as root. Also see "How do I add custom sections to a dexconf-generated
# XF86Config or XF86Config-4 file?" in /usr/share/doc/xfree86-common/FAQ.gz.

Section "Files"
FontPath "unix/:7100" # local font server
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "pex5"
Load "record"
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
Load "xie"
Load "xtt"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "generic"
Driver "vesa"
VideoRam 32000
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "HP"
HorizSync 30-70
VertRefresh 50-160
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "generic"
Monitor "HP"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "Generic Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

### END DEBCONF SECTION

The only thing I see off hand is the line
VideoRam 32000
It's in Megabytes so it should be 32 if that is the RAM for your card.

hi again
i think the video RAM size i entered was correct, i checked again and it asked the size in kilobytes, i hope 32000kB= 32mb (m not very good in maths), i just took a guess. But anyway after using the command u gave me i tried out all the various combinations and one of them worked! i dont know how! but it works! i have been trying to install debian for months and never could get the X up, but now its working! thanks a lot!

Please allow me to mention my other problems,

1) i installed debian from 3cds only while i had 5cds (wanted a faster installation), now i want a complete debian installation including the last 2 cds, i dont want to reinstall . Is there some way i can complete the installation of the last two cds?

2)the default installation of debian has given me kernel 2.2 but i have checked the Cd and theres a kernel 2.4 available, now if i choose to reinstall how do i choose this kernel over 2.2? i would prefer to avoid installing the new kernel from source since it never works for me.

3)whats the command to configure the sound card?

thanks for your time and patience

For Woody, type bf24 at the installation prompt for 2.4.

apt-cdrom add
To add the last two cd's. You'll be prompted to insert the cd.

You could install Sarge http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

A better way is to use apt-get to install software. You don't need all those cd's. Just install the base system using the net-install cd then apt-get what you *need*

To set up apt with the web repositories
apt-setup

To update you apt cache for searching and installing
apt-get update

To search for packages
apt-cache search keyword

To install
apt-get install package