Laptop Display shows no picture
 

I'm still a newbie, although I have been running Red Hat on my home PC for a while, so the simpler the English the better...

Problem is on my Dell laptop, Latitude D505 using the Intel 82852/82855 built in video hardware. I want to run a Live CD distribution, preferably with USB support. I have tried DSL, Mandrake-Move, and ADIOS live CD versions, but they all have the same problem. Once Linux loads and gets to the GUI portion of the software the screen goes black. It is still on, but I can not see anything on the display.

I have tried switching video modes when I boot, but none seem to work. With DSL I get an "Invalid Mode" message and then I'm forced to choose a resolution, again none of which work.

Any suggestions? I'm sure it has to do with the display on the laptop.

I may have answered part of my own question here...

According to www.linux-on-laptops.com the D505 will work with "XFree86 4.4.99.12 from CVS".

Next question, what is this and how do I use/install it?

I had the exact same problem trying to install SuSE on my friend's laptop. As soon as X starts up, the screen goes black and not even Ctrl-Alt-Backspace can save the day. You have to reset the computer, which I don't like doing to Linux...

However, his PC's made by Patriot, and they're not listed on that list.

I'm guessiing it's just because X doesn't have a driver for the graphics system.

I'll be watching this thread for results.

(By the way, not only did the display fail, the partitioning program killed the existing WinXP partition - UNIX and NTFS don't mix - so all he [a long time Windozer] was left with was the Linux failsafe command line... He wasn't best pleased.)