I'm trying to run Xwindows on Slackware 8.1. Everytime I run "startx" or "xinit", I get the following error messages:

(EE) VESA(0): No matching modes
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

The machine is a packard bell p133 with 64meg ram.
It has onboard video that cannot be disable in the bios, and I currently have a Matrox Millenium 4meg PCI card plugged in that is connected to the monitor. In the XFree86 log, there's this info about the video:

(--) PCI: (0:8:0) S3 Trio32/64 rev 84, Mem @ 0xf8000000/26, BIOS @ 0xffbb0000/16
(--) PCI:*(0:17:0) Matrox MGA 2064W rev 1, Mem @ 0xffbec000/14, 0xff000000/23
For my Config file, I have

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "CTX"
ModelName "1451"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "mga"
VendorName "Matrox"
BoardName "MGA 2064W"
BusID "PCI:0:17:0"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection


I currently have it setup to boot the console in 800x600 mode, which it does fine.

There are also sections for the onboard video which I don't want to use, but I still get the same problem if I comment it out. I've tried XF86config, XFree86Setup and XFree -configure, all of which take me through the process, and still give me the same error. I even installed Redhat 8 (which detects everything and runs fine), and copied the XFree86Config file over, and it still gives me the same message.

Anyone have any ideas? I'd really appreciate it.

It looks like you may need to add HorizSync ?-? and possibly VertRefresh ?-? to the "Monitor" Section. Something like this...
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "CTX"
ModelName "1451"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 33-53 (these numbers need to match the specs for your monitor)
VertRefresh 40-90 (these numbers need to match the specs for your monitor)
EndSection





Also, sometimes it helps to have Modes specified for each display depth (you don't need this for the depths you will not be using )like this...

Monitor "Monitor0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

This is really weird...

Instead of filling in the values for that, I ran xf86config (like I had done a thousand times before) as I had remembered it asking me for those values. It put everything in there, and this time, X started up! (maybe I wasn't running it as root before?) Now I just have to figure out how to get the resolution set nice and get the mouse to stop acting overly sensitive.

Thanx a lot for your help!

Post your the part of your /etc/XF86Config that has the mouse settings. Also, what kind of mouse do you have?

Your resolution can be set by specifying your default depth and then the resolution you want to use at the beginning of the list of resolutions in your /etc/XF86Config file.

You need to make it look more like the post by DaOne above. This should get your resolution about where you want it. Hope this helps.