Problem with Xfree86 and video card
 

I recently hard an issue with my hard drive and have to re-install everything. I have made partitions for it already, and this time I wanted to install Debian also to try it out. I installed sarge from the net install cd and everything was ok, the only problem I have is with Xfree86 and my video card. I have an Nvidia Geforce FX 5200, it works fine with my slackware with xfree86 4.3 but I noticed that debian uses xfree86 4.2 and I dont think my video card is supported. Since xfree86 4.3 isnt part of sid either, would I have to download the source and compile it myself? Or is there a way to apt-get from a different location? Thanks.

Are you using the default nv driver, or the nvidia driver? I'd check that before you went ahead and downloaded xf86.

As for 4.3 locations, i found a source from apt-get.org. just add the following into your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://debian.netfarm.it/experimental/ woody sherpya

I'll warn you though: I'm on a dsl connection, and that downloaded at about 5k/second, taking almost 5 hours. I'd definetly recommend looking around apt-get.org again to see if you can find another source.

I was using the nv driver at first, and then tried the nvidia driver. I looked on www.xfree86.org and saw that the Geforce FX is supported by xfree86 4.3 and not by 4.2. Ill just download the binarys from xfree86.org and install that way and see if it works.

Make sure you are configuring the XF86Config-4 file instead of just the XF86Config file. I just setup Debian yesterday and that was one of the mistakes I made was messing around with just the regular XF86Config file.

I got it working now. Since I had installed Xfree86 4.2 during the install, I just upgraded it to Xfree86 4.3 as on the www.xfree86.org site. I now have it working, 4.3 supports my video card. Now I have it running with gnome. Thanks.