No display for X under Debian (woody)...

[madcrasher]

Okay, yet another newbie needs help.

I'm trying to install Debian on an old HP Pavilion PC (the kind they gave away a few years back with three years of internet access). The installer ran pretty much w/o a hitch, but when it tries to start GNOME (or anything that uses X windows), I get the following error:

AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0

I Googled the above statement and found this thread. I've looked at my XFree86 configuration file and it appears to have my graphics card right (Intel 800-something-or-other), so what else do I need to check?

Any and all help is appreciated!

I would be using Fedora or Mandrake, but the intallers don't agree with my hardware.

[redhead]

Have you tried running: xf86cfg ?, if that starts any X-like interface, you can use <ctrl><alt><f1> to switch back, see what driver the X loadet with, then use that in your /etc/X11/XF86Config{-4} If that dosn't work, you could try using xf86config and in the graphics card section, try and find the driver for your card.

[madcrasher]

Dulely noted. It'll be a while before I can get back to my comp, though. I'm back to college and it's still at home.

[teknomage1]

You can also run 'XFree86 -configure' and it will try to autodetect everything and write a sample XF86Config file for you. It also gives instructions on how to make that the default file.

EDIT: Okay so I notice that's mentioned in the thread you highlighted, but I do think it's sound advice.