I installed Debian without a hitch, but I have a problem starting Xfree86. Debian wont load a GUI, so I type in "startx" which tries to load and says, "Fatal server error: no screens found."
Above that it also says "ATI: PCI/AGP Mach64 in slot 1:0:0 could not be detected No devices detected"

I have an ATI Radeon 7500 and I chose the ATI chipset drivers during the setup. I also tried using the standard vga drivers, which also did not work.

I've only had a few months prior expierence in Mandrake before this, so please go easy on me. Thanks for any help.

I'd suggest running xf86config manually
and see where it gets you...


Cheers,
Tink

Otherwise a lovely system, Debiaan can be a bit tricky when it comes to configuring X. You will probably have to do some things by hand.

For starters, edit XF86Config normally located in your root directory, and check the following section:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
Driver "radeon"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "true"
vendorname ""
boardname ""
EndSection


You have to make sure that Driver says radeon, and not ATI or something else. Once you change this, give it another try, and let us know what happens.

I ran the xf86config manually, still had the same error messages when I finished. When it asked me to pick a number corresponding to the chipset I had, there was no choice for radeon.

I attempted to edit XF86Config, but I couldn't find the file to edit.
The only thing listed in my root directory is "cd.save"
I then went looking into the /etc/ directory, no X11 was listed there either.

Well I feel like an idiot. The X11 is in the etc directory, and I edited the file like you said, but X11 still will not run.
I now get "(EE) No devices detected. Fatal server error: no screens found"

OK. In that file, there should be something like this:


Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
Virtual 0 0
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
Virtual 0 0
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
Virtual 0 0
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
Virtual 0 0
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
Virtual 0 0
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
Virtual 0 0
EndSubSection
EndSection


Do you have it?

Yes, it's almost exactly the same, just without the Virtual 0 0

I tried adding that in, but still no success.

I guess this means it can't be solved?