finding correct video driver, and stuff...
 

My display adapter is SiS 315_315e
I'm a complete newbie when it comes to linux, and so far I've managed to install it successfully. When it comes to run startx, the screen goes black, several times, and eventually fails. This is because the correct drivers arn't installed.

My problem is the drivers I need don't exist.
...is it possible to use some sort of generic driver, I can't find a suitable option when reconfiguring xserver-xfree86

thanks

Andy

Yes, it is. Did you run dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86? Which one you chose?

yea, I've tried Standard VGA i think it was called, and also I've tried multiple other SiS drivers, not exactly mine.

The error I end up with is No Screen found..
no screen found? is it my monitor thats the problem not the graphics card?

(dell e770p)

thanks again

In XF86Config-4 the "Screen" means a section that binds the monitor and graphics card together.

VGA should work on pretty much any card, as should "vesa". If you fail configuring X with dpkg-reconfigure, check "man XF86Config-4" and check the file /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 manually.

You can check the Xserver logfile at /var/log/XFree86.0.log.

few!
 

after three days, i've finally managed it. much quicker than i had hoped! whopeee.
my problem was the hsync and vsync values. they were definatly correct (30-70, 50-160)
but i tried 0-100, 0-100 and it worked fine.

actually i'm lying it wasn't that that fixed it.
i think it was a vesa driver that did the trick.

XFree86 has its own in-built hardware autodetecting functions, which you can use to test how XFree86 actually sees your graphics hardware. "su" to root and then do "X -configure". This command should create a new file called XF86Config-4.new either into your normal user's home directory or to the root user's home directory. Now you can open this new file in some text editor and check the Section "Device" to see what graphics driver XFree86 thinks you've got.