Christophe MICHEL tofm2@club-internet.fr wrote:

: Unfortunately, I can't execute Xwindows with my brand new AGP rage IIC
: (ATI) videocard, during redhat installation, i stipulated to install MACH64
: server but system freezes at startx (or at least, it seems that screen
: becomes black and nothing else happens).

Red Hat 5.1 doesn't have a recent enough version of XFree86. You
need to get the version 3.3.3 Mach64 X server and related packages,
as follows:

Log into ftp://updates.redhat.com, and get:

ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.1/i386/XFree86-100dpi-fonts-3.3.3-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.1/i386/XFree86-3.3.3-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.1/i386/XFree86-75dpi-fonts-3.3.3-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.1/i386/XFree86-Mach64-3.3.3-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.1/i386/XFree86-VGA16-3.3.3-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.1/i386/XFree86-XF86Setup-3.3.3-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.1/i386/XFree86-libs-3.3.3-1.i386.rpm
ftp://updates.redhat.com/5.1/i386/XFree86-xfs-3.3.3-1.i386.rpm

All but the second of those will fit on DOS floppies, if you need
to use DOS/Windows to retrieve those packages, and you can use
the Linux "mcopy a:* ." to copy them from floppies into your
root user's home directory.

XFree86-3.3.3-1.i386.rpm is 6924 kb, too big to fit on a floppy.
Therefore, use ftp://ftp.sfpcug.org/pub/dos/utilities/chop31.zip
to temporarily chop it into five 1.4 MB pieces, which will be created
as filenames xaa, xab, xac, xad, and xae. Ferry those over to your
Linux box using DOS floppies and the "mcopy a:* ." command. (Do
"su -" to become the root user, first.)

At the Linux prompt, type

cat xaa xab xac xad xae > XFree86-3.3.3-1.i386.rpm

to reconstruct the package file.

(The above advice is generic, intended to suffice for any user.
Alternatively, _if_ you have a working Windows installation on the
same box, _and_ know how to mount FAT partitions in Linux, you
can save the floppy-transportation and file-reassembly steps.)

Now, type "rpm -Uvh *.rpm" to install all eight packages.

Finally, you can run your favourite tool for creating an appropriate
/etc/X11/XF86Config file: either Xconfigurator, or XF86Setup, or
xf86config.

(By the way, XFree86 3.3.3.1 is out, but Red Hat Software doesn't
yet have it in RPM package format.)

--
Cheers, The cynics among us might say: "We laugh,
Rick Moen monkeyboys -- Linux IS the mainstream UNIX now!
rick (at) linuxmafia.com MuaHaHaHa!" but that would be rude. -- Jim Dennis