i recently decided to switch to linux ( short story: me = peace loving hippy, ms = big bush contributor ). i had a copy of Mandrake 7.2 laying around that came with an old piece of hardware and my sound card was not supported. i had no problems with starting x server and after a week i was tired of not having sound. (after all, i don't want to use windows EVER again). so, i downloaded 9.2 and now i am having a problem with starting the x server.

Here is the hardware I have: NEC Multisync 15+ and an old S3 Virge video card with 4 MB memory.

In the graphical installation, when I click to configure the X server at the end of the installation, the program freezes. I went into the text instalation and tried lowering down to the lowest standards possible but all that happens is the server will actually come up, but it just hangs instead of showing the box asking if the resoultion is okay. luckily, i found out about Ctrl+Alt+Backspace after a few tries going through all of it.

I've tried every resoultion, S3 Virge driver, and XFree86 4 and 3 and with no luck. Are there additional packages I need to download that the Mandrake install does not have the support for or an I SOL? And if there are, please explain how to install them?

Thank you in advance.

I'm assuming that you are using XF86config or XFdrake, I would use XFdrake and make sure your trying the proper virge driver, there are several of them, I would look at the card and get the specific chip-set numbers. The drivers are listed by chip-set. It has a test function for you to test the config before saving it. Good luck, I hope this helps.