hi,

i am new to linux, infact i never used it before,
but i'm willing to learn about it, and how to use it.

so for that purpose i pulled out a VERY VERY VERY old
compaq presario 3008EA. (it was the only thing i had lying around
un-used)

i need help with seting up Xorg
on this old thing.

the problems is i tried it already,
but because of my limited knowledge i don't know
what drivers to get, what specs the screen has,
what graphics card is on it (since it's integrated)

even asuming it will work,
i had it running on 8bit, but the desktop didn't fit the screen
it was too big, it didn't matter what resolution i tried in xorgconfig

the distro i'm running is:
slackware 12.1 with huge.s kernel (since i didn't know if this old thing was a powerpentium or not, but it seems most likely it's not. so i chose the recommended kernel for old systems)

here are some specs on this old beasty:

Systemboard:
- BMW-2 (Tonka)

chipset:
- North Bridge - Intel i810e
- South Bridge - Intel ICH1
- integrated into the BMW2 system board - 157126-102
- North Bridge - Intel i810e, GMCHE, Rev SL3MD or SL3MB
- South Bridge - Intel ICH, B1 Rev. SL3MA or SL3Z2

Graphics:
- Integrated with North Bridge
- integrated into the BMW2 system board - 157126-102
- Whitney - Chipset
- and 151704-B2A-014 Whitney 810 Video Driver

Graphics memory:
- Dynamically Allocated
- 8 MB dynamically allocated by system board

Processor Bus Speed:
- 66 MHz (Celeron) (it says celeron because this compaq model
- 66 MHz (Celeron) also has a p3 version, i got the celeron version)

Processor Support:
- socket 370

System Audio:
- ESS Allegro
- integrated into the BMW2 system board - 157126-102
- ESS Allegro down on system board
- Chipset - ES1989 rev L.
- does not support secondary audio cable

System Memory:
- PC100/PC133 Support (interface only runs at 100 MHz)
- 64mb
- speed 100MHz

Processors:
- BMW-2 (tonka)
- Intel Celeron (Coppermine -128 core)

L2 Cache:
- integrated
- 128 KB - Intel Celeron

Power Supplies:
- BMW-2 (tonka)
- 95watt off the shelf

Video/Graphics:
- BMW-2 (tonka)
- BMW 2 has an integrated solution down on system board
- Up to 11 MB Shared System Memory - 8 MB actual

Processor:
Celeron 800/100 (it says this at the bottom of the specs page,
i don't know what it means though)

all i could get from it is that it's the Celeron Variant to the Pentium 3
866/133.

could anybody help me get this baby running?
i installed slackware without a problem.
it doesn't matter to me to have to redo it.

what i want from it is run X and a Desktop, i don't know which to use though i heard KDE is good but probably my computer can't handle that.

any help with this is greatly appreciated.

Run xorgconfig from the command line to configure X. You shouldn't have any problems searching on the internet for you computers hardware, or you can run lspci to get a list of hardware devices the kernel detected. If you want a lightweight desktop there are many out there to choose from, Fluxbox, Blackbox, Xfce, etc...

yes i tried xconfig

but as i stated, it doesn't work the way it's supposed to.

1. all the hardware pages from the offical compaq website tell me
is what i typed out in my first post. how do i know what videodriver to use?

2. i don't have a specs guide on my monitor anymore, how do i get it to the right horizontal and vertical hertz?

3. i'm kind of very new, so i don't understand all of what i'm doing with xorgconfig.

Not 'xconfig' but 'xorgconfig'
...Monitor: option 6, noninterlaced works for a lot of CRT and flatpanels.
...Driver: try vesa first, if OK make a backup,(/etc/X11/xorg.config) then try Intel 810.
...Vertical : Choose the lowest figures.
***If things don't work, just try again, takes time to know it all.

Coppermine : 800MHz PIII, PC100 RAM. So it is not that old. (about year 2000)
Rgds

Below the relevant sections of my xorg.conf.
You have to adjust the BOLD parts.
In the section device, change the driver to i810.
In the section monitor, change VertRefresh and HorizSync. Please post make and model of the monitor and I will see if I can find spec. For now, I would set the max HorizSync to 54 and the max VertRefresh to 75.
In the section screen, the first bold part is the used depth (24 should work)
In the screen subsection display for depth 24, try 800x600 first.

Further you can check /var/log/Xorg.0.log for hints where it goes wrong; lines starting with EE are errors, with WW are warnings and with II are information.

thank you for that help
now if i only knew how to manually edit
Xorg.conf without xorgconfig i would be set.

ohh and my monitor =

HP s7500
modelnumber: PE1164T

17" CRT Screen.

thanks for all the help sofar

ok maybe it's not that old, but i don't have the p3 version, but the slow celeron version. shame though.

and thanks all i got it to work,
now it's just a matter of having patience, my computer doesn't seem to handle X too good, xfce is what i chose because i read it is lightweight, but even with that it's having a hard time running it

The specs for HorizSync and VertRefresh:
Source


Max Resolution: 1280x1024 @ 60Hz

thank you wim sturkenboom

you where a great help.