Xorg and an Acer TravelMate 100 video driver install

[taterdee]

Puppy ver : BionicPup32 Linux 4.9.163-lxpup-pae [i686] - from hardinfo it says 19.03 - I am booting from CD/DVD drive
This is an Acer TravelMate 100 - Pent III Mobile CPU with 256MB RAM - Silicon Motion 720x VGA graphics - btw, no hard drive in unit atm.

I haven't managed to get past the xorg or xorgwizard portion of the puppy install. Everything at the prompt works fine using the no graphical desktop option. I attempted each option found in xorgwizard and had no luck. So, I begin to read more online...and found from http://puppylinux.info/topic/bionicpup3 ... cs-chipset
"The fix is simple, but implementing it is difficult. The default xorg.conf created by the installation has one fatal flaw. For "Card0" the driver is set to "vesa" and that line is commented out to allow the default (probably "vesa" anyway) to take effect. Unfortunately, for the older Intel Accelerated Graphics chipsets, the vesa driver doesn't work. In this machine, the chipset is 82815, and the driver must be set to "intel"."
I understand this is to fix his graphical intel chipset but figure I am close to a resolution, I give it a try.
This entails removing the "#" comment marker at the beginning of that line, and changing "vesa" to "intel", then saving the file. When X fails on a blank screen, CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE takes you to a shell prompt as root, where you could easily fix /etc/X11/xorg.conf with a text editor
So, as I understood from that forum, first I reboot, run xwin, then edit my xorg.conf file? I find the line in my xorg.conf from Section "Device" - Identifier etc. -remove the # which commented out the code 'Driver "vesa"' - and change it to "intel"? [I know that is the type the forum user had, not mine, but I try it] Save the file, retry xwin. -and I get blinking cursor. I reset and try again (editing the file one more time - btw I edited using command "mp xorg.conf" from shell to do the edit and I save). No Luck. I took a guess again and tried this also by using the xorgwizard specify option choosing("intel"- also tried "siliconmotion", "silicon" -lol I am stubborn)...no luck. I believe the xorg.conf file might be ok if I could restart the install with the xorg.conf file saved this way but know I will loose my settings change on reboot. He further mentions in the this forum his process of sftp etc., and I don't think I have that option -Again here I am guessing and stubbornly trying things without this step as I am not familiar with sftp etc. nor do I have a local install like him or any networking yet. Being fairly new to linux, I figure I am just missing a step here, or something simple. So, after some reading...
I dig into the hardinfo command and then found/confirmed the VGA Compatible controller "Silicon Motion SM720 Lynx3DM (rev c1)" under PCI devices
and then by digging some more online...I actually found a xf86-video-siliconmotion-1.7.9.tar.gz that I believe is my graphics driver for this. I downloaded it to my Windows PC. Hoping it may be what I truly needed.
I still realize all this is probably just a driver issue and/or myself being a slightly confused under educated linux user. At this point, I believe I just need a process to install the Silicon Motion 720x driver I found or add it to my pup disk iso and then load it at the shell?. Idk, I am not familiar with installing drivers in linux but I think I am close to a solution and maybe just need some guidance.
So, I have the ISO for BionicPup and siliconmotion driver files mentioned above -also on my windows system...but am not sure what I need to do to...something like include/install the driver (I mention above) to the ISO and possibly complete my graphical boot into puppy linux. Not sure how I complete any of this but figure I must be close - just doing something incorrectly. Probably not! Hoping I at least did some leg work -Tater
also figure I'll need to add other drivers as well?

[bigpup]

Bionicpup is developed for much newer hardware.
I am not sure the Linux kernel, it uses, still supports Pentium III.

I am going to suggest this.
Try this version of Puppy.
Precise light.
https://archive.org/download/Puppy_Linu ... -mk2.4.iso

Tahrpup 6.0.5 may also work.

With a Pentium III you will have problems getting web pages to work.
Web content and browsers, want to use features, that are not in that processor.

I find it hard to believe the graphics hardware does not support Vesa driver.
Something is providing graphics, as it boots, before the x server starts up.
As I understand that is Vesa, but at a very basic level.
When x server starts, graphics control is turned over to xorg and it's setup.

Ever try to boot to nox, so x server does not start?
Should be at a prompt.
Type xorgwizard.
Actually type vesa into the driver selection slot.
Pick a resolution you know will work, but no higher than 1024X768.
Complete xorgwizard.
Back at prompt.
enter xwin
Should be booted to desktop.