So, I'm new to Linux (except for my embedded Linux Zaurus Sl-A300 PDA which enticed me to try Linux on my PC).

I have a Sharp Mebius PC-CL1-4CD laptop (AMD Athlon XP-M) and tried to install Fedora from a DVD with the 2.4.22 kernel.

Install seemed to go relatively smoothly except for an unprobed monitor - I choose Generic LCD Panel 1024x768. (The probing also found a S3 ProSavage KM133 videocard.) After the reboot, grub is working, but once x kicks in and the first run Setup Agent starts, the screen turns blank in lines from top to bottom over a period of about 1/2 a second. (Choosing other Generic LCD Panel options results in the same problem).

My layman's hypotheses therefore are:
* Is it a monitor problem?
* Is it a video-card problem?

The clues available are perhaps not the best. I can't find any info in my manuals or on the web as to the monitor or display adapter. Nevertheless:

Windows tells me:-
* The display is a multimonitor on top of S3 ProSavage DDR
* The monitor is a Digital Flat Panel (1024x768) with a 60 Hz refresh rate
* The adapter is a S3 ProSavage DDR (memory size 32MB)

My XF86Config file has:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "LCD Panel 1024x768"
HorizSync 31.5 - 67.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "savage"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "S3 ProSavage KM133"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x760" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSection


My questions to you kind, wise people therefore are:

* Am I on the right track with my hypotheses? (Or are you all laughing 'coz I tried to install on such an awkward hardware combination - I've read that ProSavage cards are a pain, and furthermore, the monitor is one of the new clear-type screens I have only seen on sale here in Japan).

*Should I be trying to install other ProSavage DDR drivers (e.g. from the
Via site or the probo.com site)?

* If yes, how do I do so? There's no floppy on the laptop so I burned the Via driver to CD but don't know how to get the file onto my system so that it can be acessed by linux rescue.

I'd really appreciate your help - I'm a newbie who isn't going to give up easily. I feel I owe "full" Linux a chance, because being able to run a decent English /Japanese dictionary on the Linux Zaurus is a daily lifeline here in Japan. (Just such a shame Sharp don't support Linux beyond their hit PDAs!!).




//Moderator's Note:
Moving to Fedora - Install forum

Hello to my friend,
I have just subscribed to linuxquestion site.
Having a prosavage ddr chipset is too painful!
I have been around 1.5 years to get my video card working with acceleration under linux.
So if you had questions about X server just ask me! To share with you my 1.5 years results!
I suppose that you want just to X get up and works, fine?
Well, go to probo site and download the latest driver (4.4 beta 2). don't worry! it will work for your 4.3 XFree86 on fedora!
unzip it and then place the module (i.e savage_drv.o) under this branch:
/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/
restart your X server. ------> you're done!
Ask me other questions if you had....

it worked on my system!!!


But I had to install Fedora Core 1 in text mode and then do linux rescue to update the savage driver.

Meanwhile I had Windows 98 Working smoothly in the install.

I hope linux installation will use generic graphics command and allow driver specific options later for optimization.

Cheers

NBJayme

Yeah, that's it...
But remember, it only provides 2D acceleration and only lower level of optimizations (e.g. refresh rates). Are you a gamer or this 2D driver is enough for you?