So, I'm compleatly new to Linux and I'm seting up an old computer to see what it's all about. It's a P450 (or athalon clone) with a Diamond Video card from 1996 w/ 1meg of RAM, I think. The monitor is a old vga.

Now, after installing Slackware 10.1 and getting xwindow configured I hit "startx" and Fluxbox comes up. It apears to work fine, exept that it only shows the bottom half of the screen. I can acsses the menu, exit, change themes, start "xterm" (but It's unusable becouse I can't see the command line)

I'm runing it on 16 bit, 256 color at 640x480. "xorg.conf" is set to the most consirvitive setings becouse this monitor is old as dirt and I can find no documentation on it.

What are some things to look at to try and fix this?

You've virtual screen enabled somewhere your xorg.conf.
Check for text like Viewport or Virtual

Thanks, I found them.

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "640x480"
ViewPort 640 480
Virtual 0 0

I set both of them to 640 480 and 0 0 in every combonation and nothing changed. should they just be removed?

Try simply commeting (or removing) them by adding a # at the beggining of the line.

(I guess you know, but just in case.. you've to restart X so the changes take effect.)

That Didn't work.

Could it be the Virtical Refresh rate? Or something like that?

Try leaving the Viewport option but commenting Virtual, if that doesn't work, post your xorg.conf (without the comments to make it smaller) and I'll help you (I also have an old monitor running at 640x480).

well, here is what's in there. I'm hand typing this so there may be some typo's
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dag"
endSubsction
Load "speedo"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
End Section

Section "Files"
RgdPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgd"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
--same with TTF; Type1; CID; 75Dpi; 100dpi; local; Speedo; cyrillic replacing misc
End Section

Section "ServerFlags"
End Section

Section "Input Device"
Identifer "Keyboard1"
Driver "kbd"
Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "Auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
Option "Emulate3Buttons"
EndSection



Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Pro-Tek"
HorizSync 31.5
VertRefresh 50-70
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Standard VGA"
VenderName "Unknown"
BoardName "Unknown"
Driver "VGA"
EndSection
(Note: Chipset, BusID, Video Ram, and Clocks are remarked out)

Section "Device:
Identifier "Diamond"
Driver "VGA"
#VidioRam 1024
# Insert Clocks Here
End Section

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "Diamond"
Monitor "Pro-Tek"
DefaultDeapth 8

Subsection 'Display"
Deapth 8
Modes "640x480"
ViewPort 640 480
End Subsection

Subsection 'Display"
Deapth 16
Modes "800c600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
End Subsection

Subsection 'Display"
Deapth 24
Modes "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
End Subsection


End Section

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Simple Layout"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
End Section

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks again for looking at this and trying to help

It's kinda difficult to see if there's an error if you copy it by hand because the error I detect may be yours instead, try using xedit or gedit any simple editor to copy&paste.

Anyway DefaultDeapth 8 takes to
Subsection 'Display"
Deapth 8
Modes "640x480"
ViewPort 640 480
End Subsection
Where Viewport is 640 480, try setting 0 0

"ViewPort 640 480
End Subsection
Where Viewport is 640 480, try setting 0 0"

That's the way it's writen now. It was set to 0 0. I've been playing with it both ways and the display is the same.

If you don't want virtual console enabled change your modes into the same value. In your case to the 640x480

My part of config:

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "800x600" "800x600" "800x600"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "800x600" "800x600"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "800x600" "800x600" "800x600"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection