Other Help Topics :: Old pavilion desktops

I think I know the problem as I too have Intel graphics:

those use main ram. And bios usually allocates way too little.
You need a full X to tell it to grab more ram, thus more video modes become available.

Did you see the boot messages with vga=normal? 'cause that was the purpose. Boot "dsl 2"
and give the whole line of Xvesa -listmodes for 1024x768x8 (all the numbers on that line too)

After that start booting with "dsl noicons xsetup" and select Xfbdev. Noicons is because icons cannot be displayed in 8-bit mode..

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dsl 2 got me into a command line, which would be great if I wanted to run a server of some kind.

There are many useful CLI apps and utilities beyond servers. I haven't started X on my main DSL box in over a week. It's streaming audio through the house right now.

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tells me the card is an 82810 CGC (i810)....I'm thinking this old hardware is just not compatible with X.

That card is supported in X. The aforementioned computer has i810 onboard and it works quite well.

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When I press return, it gives me a list of column and row possibilities. I think I've tried them all with no success.

Have you tried hitting the spacebar to skip those and then use xsetup.sh to set your resolution instead? I've been able to do that with a couple computers and it's worked fine.

Have you tried framebufer device?

At the first boot prompt type:

boot: fb800x600

or

boot: fb1024x768

Don't use dsl with these boot labels, i.e., do not type boot: dsl fb800x600

Also, there is a newer tiny X server just for i810. If you can boot to dsl 2 and have net access then at the prompt

# mydsl-load Xi810 testing

Should download it and you can try it.

Thanks for the info. I'm going back on double shifts for a while, but I'll get back at this in a few days.

original here.