Laptops :: Persistently odd display.

If you can boot your machine with runlevel 2 then look at the contents of /etc/sysconfig/knoppix

boot: dsl 2 vga=normal

# cat /etc/sysconfig/knoppix

This will show what hardware was identified.
What is displayed, may help us help you.

I booted with "dsl 2 vga=normal" and got the following results:
XSERVER= "XFree86"
XDESC= "Intel Corporation :82815 CGC"

Along with this I noticed that under System Stats it said:
XMODULE="i810"

Since posting previously I've booted with :
"dsl ide=0x180,0x386"
and
"dsl vga=791"

and managed to get, with 4.x.iso, a full screen and better behaved display--complete with icons. Image just a little grainy, but no over-shading that left drop down text hard to read.

Did you follow the link from the cheat codes page to the one specifically about VGA codes?:

http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Vga%3Dxxx

If you follow the instructions about 'Additional' modes you should be able to get the best value to use instead of '791' for your system. I managed to get even the Libretto with it's 800*480 screen running at 24 bit resolution full screen with no problems using the method described.

original here.