Hi,
I am trying to get linux working on my Mac G4. 128 meg of rams with (im pretty sure) an ATI Rage 128 video card.

When I boot from the CD, I am presented with the yaboot 1.3.9 messages. I have tried all gui installs and none of them works. When the GUI comes up, all I can see is an 8 colour image of the Linux Mandrake 9.1 installation. The rests of the text is streched as if it was running under a resolution that the monitor doesnt support. (all streched and greeninsh.) I have tried with three different monitors. (Philips 15in. MBII 15in, and a Sony G400 Multiscan 20in). They all have exactly the same output. Install-gui-old had the same problems...

So I had to use the install-text options. Everything went fine, until I had to perform video configurations. No matter what combination I would try, when I tested it, Linux would tell me that there is an error. So I try setting up to ATI Rage 128, with Monitor Sony 20 and resolution of 800X600 8 bit, and clicked next (even tough it had failed the test). Now Linux installed, and eventually rebooted. I saw a big bunch of stuff with [ OK ] by them, and observed that : interface eth0 had [ FAILED ].

At the end of this, my screen clicked on and off three time and I was in the linux shell.

So I guessed Linux was installed. I tried to type KDE and here's what happed.

XFree86 version 4.3.0
(EE) R128(0) cannot read V_Bios5
(EE) R128(0) virtual height (0) is too small for the hardware (min 128)
(EE) Screen(s) found but none have a usable configuration

Fatal server errors: no screen found.

I hope this describes my problem enough and that it is there is a way for me to fix this.

I am hoping I can re-install linux from scratch to fix the solution, because after trying all sorts of pathetic attempts to solve the problem, Linux is just not booting properly anymore (lots of [ FAILED ]!!!)

I would appreciate any help with this.

Thanks a lot, and sorry for my ignorance on the subject.
Jp

Since you can boot to the command prompt, you can try configuring XFree86 manually. I'm not familiar with Linux on the Mac, but on the PC a little script called xf86config is supplied with X in order to set up the XF86Config file. You'll need to know a bit about your hardware, particularly your monitor and graphics card, but the process should be fairly self explanatary.