You'll need a very recent distribution, since only XFree86 4.2.0 supports this card. I know that Gentoo 1.2 has it, though I wouldn't recommend that one for a beginner. You might try SuSE 8.0 or Red Hat 7.3, though I'm not sure about those either.
In the worst case, you can install an older distro, then get the newest XFree86 (by downloading it under Windows or a working Linux box and beaming it over to the Linux box that needs it.) If there are no binary packages for your distribution, you can get the source code and build it. This takes a while, but isn't particularly difficult. You could use command-line FTP to get it, too - just have the distro configure your ethernet card with DHCP (this is how Adelphia allocates IP addresses), then ftp to ftp.xfree86.org and look around. The final option is to configure X using the VESA driver, then suck down 4.2.0, compile/install it, and re-configure to use the ati driver (simply changing 'Driver "vesa"' to 'Driver "ati"' in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 should do the trick. --- Jim Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello, > I have tried several different distros > of linux and all will > not load x because of my video card. I am writing to > you in hopes of > attaining information on making my Radeon 8500 work > with Linux or when x > free will be compatible with it. Thank you. > > Jim "Sarge" Thomas > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > AIM: Jet842 > ICQ: 122762096 > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Autos - Get free new car price quotes http://autos.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Xpert mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xpert
