Ok couple of days ago i installed mandrake 9.0 using the vesa drivers for my video card which is a Ati Radeon 9000 Pro 128 mb. Well last night i tried installing the ati drivers because with the vesa drivers my system was running really slow. I did that and did everything the thing told me to do. I restarted my system after words and got the error i got with mandrake 9.1 no screens found. I did configure the video driver and i did that about 4 times and still no luck. My first question is how do i get xfree to load up with the vesa drivers again and the second is which drivers should i try other than the ati ones. I did download the right ati drivers for xfree but it did not work. Please Help Me! I am just trying linux and i like it but i am having a few problems with it! Also I can get into root but i have no gui so i will need the commands. Thanks to whoever helps me on this issue.

First, look for a file in /etc/X11/ that's XF86Config-4.old. If you have that there, either su if you're in a user, or login as root. Then do:

cd /etc/X11
cp XF86Config-4 XF86Config-4.old2
cp XF86Config-4.old XF86Config

When it asks if you want to overwrite the file, say yes. Then reboot. That SHOULDd restore the install to the original config file if you used the ATI drivers to make the new one, etc.

If that isn't possible, you'll have to use vim or emacs to edit your XF86Config-4 file. I use vim because someone taught me how, emacs may be easier.

First, log in as root or su, then type

vim /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

The interesting part about vim is you have to use weird key combinations to do anything. But first we want to find your Section "Screen", Section "Monitor" and Section "Device" settings for the graphics.

In vim, you have to hit the INSERT key to type things into the file. When you're done modifying, hit the ESC key. Then just type :w to save it, and :qa! to exit vim. If it shows the :w in the file and not at the bottom of the screen, you haven't hit ESC hard enough.

Basically you need to make sure that all the device names match up. For instance, you could have Identifier "device1" in the Device section, Identifier "monitor1" in the Monitor section, and then you must have Identifier "screen1", Device "device1", Monitor "monitor1" in the Screen section.

Find your ServerLayout section and make sure it says Screen "screen1" (or whatever your identifier for the Screen section is.

If that made any sense, and doesn't work, you're beyond my limited knowledge.

You probably want Driver "vesa" in the Device section too. Not sure if the radeon driver exists in M9.0.

Good luck. (and thanks to anyone who corrects all my probable errors in this).

Thanks for the help i wil go and try them and see what happens.

I just tried it and it did not work at all. Any other ideas

Which did you try, out of curiousity? Both ways?

You should be able to run the xconfig tool from the command line and have it repair the file, as far as I know, but I was under the impression you had tried that?

And I don't know what the command for it is either, so...

I tried both ways