OK! I have SOME improvement! I still have a problem though! A few posts back I had come up with an error message that reads as follows. I now have a minor change. It seems I have gotten at least a handshake from the server but no recognition. I had this:

XFree86 Version 4.3.0 (Fedora Core 1: 4.3.0-42)
Release Date: 15 August 2003
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.6
Build Operating System: Linux 2.4.21-2 ELsmp i686 [ELF]
Build Date: 24 October 2003
Build Host: porky.devel.redhat.com

Before reporting any problems, please make sure that you are using the most recent XFree86 packages available from Red Hat by checking for updates at http://rhn.redhat.com/errata or by using the Red Hat Network up2date tool. If you still encounter problems, please file bug reports in the XFree86.org bugzilla at http://bugs.xfree86.org and/or Red Hat bugzilla at http://bugzilla.redhat.com.

Module Loader present
OS Kernel: Linux version 2.4.22-1.2115.ntpl (bhcompile@daffy.perf.redhat.com) (gcc version 3.2.3 20030422 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.3-6)) #1 Wed Oct 29 15:42:51 EST 2003

Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting, (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational, (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.

(==) Log file: "/var/log/XFree86Config"
(==) ServerLayout "Default Layout"
(**) |-->Screen "Screen0" (0)
(**) | |-->Monitor "Monitor0"
(**) | |-->Device Videocard0"
(**) |-->Input Device "Mouse0"
(**) |-->Input Device "Keyboard0"
(**) Option XkbRules" "xfree86"
(**) XKB: rules: "xfree86"
(**) Option "XkbLayout" "us"
(**) XKB: layout: "us"
(==) CustomKeycode disabled
(**) |--> Input Device "DevImputMice"
(**) FontPath set to "unix/:7100"
(**) RgbPath set to "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
(==) ModulePath set to "/usr/X11R6?lib/modules"
(++) using VT number 7

(II) Open APM successful
(II) Module ABI versions:
XFree86 ANSI C Emulation: 0.2
XFree86 Video Driver: 0.6
XFree86 XInput driver: 0.4
XFree86 Server Extension: 0.2
XFree86 Font Renderer: 0.4
(II) Loader running on linux
(II) LoadModule: "bitmap"
(II) Loading /usrX11R6/lib/modules/fonts/libbitmap.a
(II) Module bitmap: vendor="The XFee86 Project"
compiled for 4.3.0, module version =1.0.0
Module class: XFree86 Font Renderer
ABI class: XFree86 Font Renderer, version 0.4
(II) Loading font Bitmap
(II) LoadModule: "pcidata"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libpcidata.a
(II) Module pcidata: vendor="The XFree86 Project"
compiled for 4.3.0, module version =1.0.0
ABI class: XFree86 Video Driver, version 0.6
(II) PCI: Probing config type using method 1
(II) PCI: Config type is 1
(II) PCI: stages = 0x03, oldVal1 = 0x00000000, mode1Res1 = 0x80000000
(II) PCI: PCI scan (all values are in hex)

After this there is a bunch of lines for the PCI that are in hex. I will skip these.
The next line that seems of interest is:
(!!) More than one primary device found
(--) PCI: (0:2:0) Intel Corp 82845G/GL [Brookdale-G] Chipset Integrated Graphics
Device rev 1, Mem @ 0xe8000000/27, 0xfeb80000/19
(--) PCI: (1:4:0) S3 Inc. 86c764/765 {Trio32/64/64V+] rev 0, Mem @ 0xfe000000/23,
bios @ 0xfea00000/16
There is more of the same for quite a way.
Then farther down the list the computer reports something like...
(II) Inactive PCI resources ranges after removing overlaps:
[0] -1 0 0xfeb80000 - 0xfebfffff (0x80000) MX[b](B)
[1] -1 0 0xe8000000 - 0xefffffff (0x800000) MX[b](B)
and then more of much the same.

The end shows some different stuff but ends with

(II) I810: Driver for intel integrated chipsets: i810, i810-dc100,
i810e, i815, i830M, 845G, 852GM, 865G
(II) Primary Device is:
(WW) I810: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:0:2:0) found
(EE) No devices detected.

Fatal Server error:
no screens found

If you encounter a server crash, please report the problem by ....

Now the last few lines have changed drastically. I have edited the XF86Config file using Vim and have changed the video card from the Intel 845 card on "videocard0" to the S3Trio64 card on "videocard1". I changed out the i810 driver for the s3 driver and got the mesage as follows (near the end) instead of the last few lines reading
"(II) I810: Driver for intel integrated chipsets: i810, i810-dc100,
i810e, i815, i830M, 845G, 852GM, 865G
(II) Primary Device is:
(WW) I810: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:0:2:0) found
(EE) No devices detected."

I now have,
(II) S3: driver (version 0.3.5 for S3 chipset: 964-0, 964-1, 968,
Trio32/64, Aurora64V+
(II) Primary Device is:
(WW) s3: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:1:4:0)found

There is more of the same of the last line with a few changes in numbers for about 50 or so lines and then:

(EE) No devices detected.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

If you encounter a server crash, please report the problem by....(deleted due to fatigue) :-(

The rest just tells me where to report the problem (assuming that I had a WORKING linux system) Any thoughts? Any hairbrained ideas? Anybody out there? Besides me? For those who have posted prior, Thanks! Please try again. Any one else is more than welcome to take a stab at it too. Thanks.

Can you post your XFree86.conf file please. You'll find it in the /etc/X11/ directory.

OK. I have to type this all in by hand because I am on this forum with my little laptop trying to get advice for the big brother desktop that is undergoing treatment to get rid of the Windows affliction. The XF86Config goes something like this:

# XFree86 4 configuration created by pyxf86config

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Input Device "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Input Device "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
Input Device "DevInputMice" "AlwaysCore"
EndSection

Section "Files"
# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.

See if you can find a "Device" section. The whole file would be useful - can you not copy it onto floppy or something and then upload it using your laptop?

OK. Here it goes.

# XFree86 4 configuration created by pyxf86config

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Input Device "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Input Device "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
Input Device "DevInputMice" "AlwaysCore"
EndSection

Section "Files"
# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name or the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concantenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.

RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
Endsection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
Load "dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"

# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "cntl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:#
# Option "XkbOptions" "cntl:nocaps"
#
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# If the normal CorePointer mouse is not a USB mouse then
# this input device can be used in AlwaysCore mode to let you
# also use USB mice at the same time.
Identifier "DevInputMice"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "ViewSonic A75f"
DisplaySize 330 240
HorizSync 30.0 - 70.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard1"
Driver "s3"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "S3Trio 64"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard1"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection



Ah, my poor fingers.

OK folks! God does answer prayer. Sometimes through stupidity! After 5 days of wrestling with this stupid computer and suffering sleep deprivation.... After having spent the night without sleeping because I kept working on the problem in my head in bed.... In an act of desperation.... I went into the bios and TRIED to disable the video card on the motherboard ONE MORE TIME. I discovered YET AGAIN, that this system would NOT allow me to disable the video card and so in an effort to shake something loose I did my STUPID act: I set the monitor preference from AUTO to ONBOARD! Without too much more thought about it I saved preferences and rebooted. Much to my chagrin, nothing happened! There was nothing on the monitor! Oh, the computer chuckled and chortled as usual, MOCKING ME, but I could SEE NOTHING! I beat myself on the forehead immediately! DOH! In an act of desperation I quickly removed the extra video card and planned on moving it to another PCI slot (in an attemt to shock the system setting loose). Out of curiosity I took the monitor and hooked it up to the OLD video card that was ONBOARD. I was hoping beyond hope that I could at least get the beginning of the boot sequence to show up on the monitor so that I could go back into the BIOS and correct my mistake. LOW and BEHOLD the monitor functioned PERFECTLY! The WHOLE REASON I ended up with this P4 Dell Computer PRE LOADED with Windows XP was that the Video Card did not work! There was a corrupted copy of XP on the PC and I did not have a good copy of XP to reload. Neither did the previous TWO owners of this POS. I did manage to repair the XP operating system well enough to limp on (and I do mean LIMP) with the replacement video card I had been using to test and repair the computer. It appears that with all of my bumbling and with my desire to GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS (!!!) (due to all the "Drive bys" in THAT neighborhood!) I managed to reload the faulty DRIVERS! All without REALIZING that I had a FULLY FUNCTIONAL video card ON THE MOTHERBOARD! GOD! WHAT STUPIDITY ON MY PART! Anyways, I allowed my little DVD copy of Fedora Core 1 (1!) to continue its task of loading. LOW and BEHOLD!(The angel choir began to sing in the background the HALLELUJIA CHORUS from Handel's Messiah!) The graphics interface loaded! There was NO ERROR MESSAGE FROM THE X SERVER! Here I was cursing all the IDIOTS that could not figure out how to make the RED HAT Linux operating system resolve a little hardware glitch and it was MY OWN FAULT! A BIG THANK YOU to all who tried to help! I am posting my act of STUPIDITY on this forum in an effort to help some other schlub and keep the rest of you more experienced linux users (can I now be included in THAT club???) from having to deal (ONE MORE TIME) with an idiot such as myself. Thanks, Thanks, THANKS! All I can say about this experience is THANK GOD! Without it I would have been less inclined to go deeply into the documentation and IMMERSE MYSELF in it for 5 days. I would have taken my task of learning about Linux with much less urgency. Again, THANK YOU ALL for helping. NEWBIES NOTE: If you suffer the same problems I did with trying to bypass a "DAMAGED" video card while operating under WINDOWS, DO NOT ASSUME the card is bad. CHECK IT! Hook up your monitor and see if Linux has loaded the drivers. BEFORE DAY 5!

I will post a copy of the FX86Config file that Red Hat Linux Core 1 DID set up for my system. This Config DOES WORK for MY system. ANYONE ELSE will have to modify thier config file with the information pertaining to thier OWN system. With luck, and by the grace of God, you too, can have your system set up and properly functioning.

# XFree86 4 configuration ... (to be continued)

OK folks! God does answer prayer. Sometimes through stupidity! After 5 days of wrestling with this stupid computer and suffering sleep deprivation.... After having spent the night without sleeping because I kept working on the problem in my head in bed.... In an act of desperation.... I went into the bios and TRIED to disable the video card on the motherboard ONE MORE TIME. I discovered YET AGAIN, that this system would NOT allow me to disable the video card and so in an effort to shake something loose I did my STUPID act: I set the monitor preference from AUTO to ONBOARD! Without too much more thought about it I saved preferences and rebooted. Much to my chagrin, nothing happened! There was nothing on the monitor! Oh, the computer chuckled and chortled as usual, MOCKING ME, but I could SEE NOTHING! I beat myself on the forehead immediately! DOH! In an act of desperation I quickly removed the extra video card and planned on moving it to another PCI slot (in an attemt to shock the system setting loose). Out of curiosity I took the monitor and hooked it up to the OLD video card that was ONBOARD. I was hoping beyond hope that I could at least get the beginning of the boot sequence to show up on the monitor so that I could go back into the BIOS and correct my mistake. LOW and BEHOLD the monitor functioned PERFECTLY! The WHOLE REASON I ended up with this P4 Dell Computer PRE LOADED with Windows XP was that the Video Card did not work! There was a corrupted copy of XP on the PC and I did not have a good copy of XP to reload. Neither did the previous TWO owners of this POS. I did manage to repair the XP operating system well enough to limp on (and I do mean LIMP) with the replacement video card I had been using to test and repair the computer. It appears that with all of my bumbling and with my desire to GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS (!!!) (due to all the "Drive bys" in THAT neighborhood!) I managed to reload the faulty DRIVERS! All without REALIZING that I had a FULLY FUNCTIONAL video card ON THE MOTHERBOARD! GOD! WHAT STUPIDITY ON MY PART! Anyways, I allowed my little DVD copy of Fedora Core 1 (1!) to continue its task of loading. LOW and BEHOLD!(The angel choir began to sing in the background the HALLELUJIA CHORUS from Handel's Messiah!) The graphics interface loaded! There was NO ERROR MESSAGE FROM THE X SERVER! Here I was cursing all the IDIOTS that could not figure out how to make the RED HAT Linux operating system resolve a little hardware glitch and it was MY OWN FAULT! A BIG THANK YOU to all who tried to help! I am posting my act of STUPIDITY on this forum in an effort to help some other schlub and keep the rest of you more experienced linux users (can I now be included in THAT club???) from having to deal (ONE MORE TIME) with an idiot such as myself. Thanks, Thanks, THANKS! All I can say about this experience is THANK GOD! Without it I would have been less inclined to go deeply into the documentation and IMMERSE MYSELF in it for 5 days. I would have taken my task of learning about Linux with much less urgency. Again, THANK YOU ALL for helping. NEWBIES NOTE: If you suffer the same problems I did with trying to bypass a "DAMAGED" video card while operating under WINDOWS, DO NOT ASSUME the card is bad. CHECK IT! Hook up your monitor and see if Linux has loaded the drivers. BEFORE DAY 5!

I will post a copy of the FX86Config file that Red Hat Linux Core 1 DID set up for my system. This Config DOES WORK for MY system. ANYONE ELSE will have to modify thier config file with the information pertaining to thier OWN system. With luck, and by the grace of God, you too, can have your system set up and properly functioning.

# XFree86 4 configuration ... (to be continued)

# XFree86 4 configuration created by redhat-config-xfree86

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
Load "dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"
# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
# Option "XkbDisable"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
#
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# If the normal CorePointer mouse is not a USB mouse then
# this input device can be used in AlwaysCore mode to let you
# also use USB mice at the same time.
Identifier "DevInputMice"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "ViewSonic A75f"
DisplaySize 330 240
HorizSync 30.0 - 70.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "i810"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "Intel 845"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection

Can you disable the onboard video in bios?

Since you have 2 video devices, I think that you need to add the line:
BusID "PCI:1.4.0" to the "Device" section for the S3 driver. It may be trying to use the S3 driver with the i810 built in device.