Powerbook 12-inch (Sept. '03 model) video

[Matthew W. Novak]

YellowDog-General,

I'll say up front that--while a veteran of the various MacOS and
Windows incarnations--I'm a complete linux/YellowDog neophyte.  In
fact, I wanted to put YellowDog 3.0 on my new PowerBook as a
pseudo-safe self-introduction.

Trouble is, I cannot get the X shell to display correctly.  

I'm working from the ISO's available at the ftp.yellowdog
(yellowdog-3.0-sirius-20030530-install1.iso, etc. al.).  The machine in
question is a 12-inch Powerbook with the NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 video
chip (a Sept. '03 PB).

For the install process, I had to run the "install-safe" command as the
normal route delivered me to a highly pixilated and distorted
trying-to-be-GUI screen.

Following install, at a command prompt, "startx" delivered me to
something loosely identifiable as a desktop, but again highly pixilated
and distorted.

Running "Xautoconfig --safe" at the prompt produced a more
usable--though still pixilated--shell conforming to a slightly
off-center 1024x768 desktop.  Working in this shell, I navigated to the
display properties and autodetected the following the video settings
(difficult to read, I've reproduced my best guess):

Video card: generic OF compatible
Hsync: 50-70
Vsync: 60
Driver: flxlev

Desktop of 1024x768 at 256 colors.

Restarting the shell after these changes produced a true 1024x768
desktop (centered, not cropped) and a functional/visible mouse cursor,
but no improvement in the pixilation.

Shifting to thousands of colors causes the shell crash on load.

Searches on this list suggest that my problem may lie with the NVIDIA
chip.  As such, I may be stuck until a driver is released.  

Any suggestion, revelations, or ideas are welcome... but keep in mind
that I'm a newbie: send me off to edit or compile whatever might help,
just please include detailed instructions (or a link to such details).
:)

Regards,

--MW   

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