X and Fluxbox :: WM never loads, ever.

OK I have some hacked up laptop.  It has only a 64MB CF card as storage.  I extracted the .iso to the CF and got loadlin to replace isolinux.  I did Xvesa -listmodes and found 800x600x16 to be the best.  After booting with that, I see the penguin again during bootup messages.  I've tried with and without fb800x600.  Every time I get just the checkered screen with my X mouse pointer in the center.  No response to pointer movement or trying to switch back to my console.  What's up?  Laptop is a really unique thing.  It's a surplus NetSchools machine.  Rise mP6 CPU 200MHz with 64M of RAM.  Everything outside of X works excellent.  

i know this problems too. just one of five times fluxbox window manager was loading successfully using the dsl 0.8.4 distribution.
With dsl 0.9.1 itīs getting better (i even donīt know why) . Here are some things to be mentioned:

remove ALL other cdromīs and floppys before booting
choose dsl vga=normal at the bootscreen
choose the right settings for your mouse while setting Xvesa configuration.
If youīre using a pointer or a stick instead of a mouse try with an external com-/ps2-/usb-mouse!!!
wait ītil dsl has finsished booting before using the mouse.

maybe one ore more of this points may help you! my actually quote is 1:1 successfull/unsuccessfull booting!