execve error and getting Xserver going Mandrake 8.2
 

Hello all,
Would appreciate any help.

Just installed Mandrake Linux 8.2 on a old Pentium 200MHz w/ 80MB RAM and at least 4gigs of HD space. I have a Diamond Stealth II S220 V2100 chipset video card with 4MB RAM.

Everytime I went through the install GUI the screen would get screwed after choosing the screen resolution and color mode. -it autoidentified my card as a Rendition Verti which is correct. Anyways got sick of this - and just rebooted and am now working from the command prompt.

When I try to startx I get a execve error, then xinit tries to run and it says it cant attach to process. Next I tried running xf86config and choosing my exact video card and then a standard VGA mode. But, after all this when running startx I get the same results - like xf86config had no effect on anything. When I go into the cdrom and hunted around for something to work I ran XFDrake and it asks for monitor type and resolution - after this it tries to start some gui and then the screeen goes wacko. The strange thing is that the mouse cursor graphic is intact but the screen background is screwed - I get color as well as black and white tho.

I've looked through all the results for this problem on web - and none have helped. With xf86config I setup for stan VGA card and monitor - still had no effect.

According to what I have read on the web XFree86 supports and has been tested with Diamond Stealth II S220 card. Also, this computer was previously running Win95 in 800x600 32bit color no problem - with the exact same monitor- I know the monitor is not the problem because it did the same thing on my ViewSonic PF775.

This is incredibly frustrating. Any help would be appreciated.
Thx,
Matt

Diamond Stealth II S220
 

I am really new to linux. Attempted many times to get into it but never able to get past installing. I finally set aside a box (Cyrix MediaGX with 64MB RAM, 14 GB hard drive and Diamond Stealth II S220). I have been able to set it up without graphics, but attempt to set it up using Red Hat Linux 7.2 graphically and get a messed up screen. Only time I have been able to get it to show anything readable, it is 320x200 resolution 8 bit and EXTREMELY MAGNIFIED. I can only see about 1/10th of the screen. I have tried 3 different monitors and also took out the video card to use the Cyrix MediaGX video. That seems to also not be supported eventhough it says it is. If someone has some suggestions, please let me know.

Please remember, I still am VERY limited on knowledge with this OS. (Been with Microsoft for so long (MSDOS 5.0 all the way up to Windows XP), I have to give my money to someone else besides Bill!)

Hi,

I tried to use XFree 3.6.6 from TechLinux 2.0 (a Mandrake clone) and it worked fine with my S220.

I tried to upgrade to Mandrake 8.2 with XFree86 4.x and could get XFree up.

The XFConfig from 3.6.6 doesn't work with 4.x.

Perhaps someone can success where I failed.

Good look.