Yes, this appears to be a problem with XFree86 and the GeForce2 MX cards. Fortunately it looks like the drivers from nVidia should solve your problem. You'll want these drivers regardless because they *significantly* improve the speed of X.
Unfortunately you are going to have to do this without the help of a graphical environment which is no problem for an experienced Linux user but could be (will be) a challenge for the person who is new to Linux. To start with you are going to have to go to this page:
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=linux_display_1.0-3123You will want to read it over very carefully, especially the link to the README near the top. There will be two RPM files that you need to download to your machine and install. Then you will have to make a couple of minor modifications to your XF86Config file. Once this is done your Xwindows should work very well.
Of course after reading this information you are going to have to get your system booted without the graphical environment. I would suggest booting into "single user" mode and changing the default runlevel to "3". To boot into single user mode you should press "a" when the GRUB boot menu comes up which will list the exact boot command that GRUB uses to boot Linux. At the end of that line you want to add a "space" and then the word "single". This should get you to a root prompt "#". Now type:
# vi /etc/inittab
arrow down until you find the line "id:5:initdefault:"
arrow over until your cursor is over the "5" and press "r3". This should change the 5 to a 3. Now type ":wq" and press <ENTER> then reboot (<CTRL><ALT><DEL>).
After rebooting you should get a text based login prompt. Use "root" for the login name and use whatever you set up as the root password at install time for the password. This will bring you to a root shell (#). If you have network connectivity via cable/DSL you can download the drivers from this prompt by typing the following:
# wget
http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/1.0-3123/NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.src.rpm# wget
http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/1.0-3123/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.i386.rpmYou'll really need to look over the README file at this point but basically you will install the kernel driver by typing:
# rpmbuild --rebuild NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.src.rpm
Then install it by doing this:
# rpm -Uvh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/NVID*
Then install the GLX RPM by doing:
# rpm -Uvh NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.i386.rpm
The last thing is making the minor modifications to the /etc/X11/XF86Config file. The only thing you should have to do is change the "nv" to "nvidia" in the "Device" section next to the "Driver" tag. You can make this change with "vi":
# vi /etc/X11/XF86Config
Type "/nv" without the quotes which should take you to the exact item that needs to be changed. Now type "cwnvidia" (without the quotes) then press the <ESC> key, then type ":wq" and press <ENTER>. If all goes well you should be able to type "startx" and get a graphical environment without a lockup. Once you successfully get X running you can change your default runlevel back to "5" which will bring you to a graphical login prompt when you boot up. Type "vi /etc/inittab" and pick up the instructions at the top of this message where we changed the 5 to a 3.
I know this probably looks confusing as hell but fortunately this isn't a hugely common problem. Once you get the nVidia drivers working I believe you will be happy and hopefully find it was well worth your effort. The only problem with my instructions that I can think of is that you may not have installed the development tools when you installed RedHat which means you may not be able to do the "rpmbuild --rebuild" command until you install those tools.
[ December 05, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]
