system freezes on x configuration with dual head

[philn]

Hi all

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this but it's the only 
place I could find that looked even remotely appropriate.

The system is a 'stock' Compaq Deskpro EN PIII 933 with Intel chips 
requiring the i810 driver and an nVidia TNT2 pci card.

X (xorg) _will not_ configure. In the last week I've tried Debian 
testing, Debian Etch, Ubuntu 5.1 and 6.0.1, Fedora Core 5 and 6 and now 
the latest OpenSuse. Every time it gets to where it's going to configure 
the x server (the very last part of the install) my machine freezes - 
locks solid - I have to push the power button and reboot to break out of it.

I managed to get Ubuntu 5.1 working by manually installing xfree86 and
turning off the option for dcc (ddc?) which made everything look normal
but then when I upgraded to 6 it froze again with a different error -
'unable to load module pcidata, unable to load module bitmap ...'.
Apparently that is something that has been around for a while but
obviously not squashed yet.

The config file created by the Knoppix 3.4 live cd gets me going on the 
TNT card but I cannot get both of them (nVidia and i810) to run at the 
same time. After messing (I'm not an expert) with xorg.conf endlessly it 
seems the dcc thing may not have been relevant. It actually displays the 
TNT boot info on the monitor connected to the intel on the motherboard.

It seems to me that total system lock-up in a variety of distros on a 
set-up that runs flawlessly under Win2K is some kind of a problem.

grrr

Can anybody offer any help with this? I'd really like to say sionara to 
M$ but I like having two screens.

Thanks

phil n