When the computer boots with X, the "/etc/inittab" file should reserve one tty for the console (for just these situations). In slackware it's tty06 ([Ctrl] [Alt] [F6]); in red hat it might be 5. try them all. X Windows opens itself on 7 when run (at least in linux), probably because it's the next number availible.
Now for X itself. Have you tried to set the card driver to "unsupported VESA"? it might at least be usable. If on the other hand what you have is usable (except for the fact that the default res is too low), then there are several lines that need to be dealt with in XF86Config;
The important lines are "DefaultDepth", which for me is set to 24 (as in bits-per-pixel). So, under the appropriate SubSection "Display" you can see the default modes associated with it. The first mode listed is the default. They should be a reference to another section of the file: Section "Monitor". It should have a listing for each mode you defined during the config setup, but especially the one you use most.
For referencing, the name has to be the same one referenced inside the screen section: (quoted again for clarity)
hope this helps;
just FYI, the relavent lines at the bottom of "/etc/inittab" (for slackware) are
It is saying that consoles 1-5 are open for runlevels 1,2,3, and 5, but only console 6 is open for 1,2,3,4, and 5. slackware uses runlevel 4 for booting into X... redhat uses 5 (or is that 3?), so adjust accordingly.
[ January 17, 2003: Message edited by: beltorak ]
[ January 17, 2003: Message edited by: beltorak ]