Intel 915GM driver + i810_drv.o patch -> no virtual terminals (and other issues)

[Alain Cochard]

During a Fedora Core 4 install on a Latitude D610, it said "Unknown
monitor" and offered me the choice between 800x600 and 640x480.  I
choose the former and it worked.

The only thing I know about my monitor is what the BIOS says: 14" XGA
with native resolution 1024x768.  

Is there a way to find out more? Is it important?

So I tried to get that 1024x768 resolution.

My initial xorg.conf had <Driver "vesa"> in the Device section.  As I
have the Intel 915GM graphics card, I put "i810" instead of "vesa",
but then X failed (no screen found).  I then installed the i810_drv
patch by Alan Hourihane <http://www.fairlite.demon.co.uk/intel.html>

I did it by simply replacing the old i810_drv.o file by the new one; is this
correct?

It worked again, but:

(1) I lost the virtual terminals (the F1 to F6 keys).  More precisely,
    I have a black screen while the terminals are there (if I log in
    as root (blindly) and type 'reboot', it does reboot).

(2) and I lost my screen savers: the screen becomes black instead, and
    after about 1 minutes instead of what I had chosen (5 minutes).

(3) plus it was still a 800x600 resolution.

I could solve problem (3) and get the 1024x768 resolution by following
the directions at <http://www.geocities.com/stomljen/>:

-  by using a Section "Modes" with a modeline option as determined by
   gtf 

-  and by keeping only <Modes "1024x768"> in the SubSection "Display".  

   Do I need to have a modeline option for each resolution, to be able
   to keep using Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"?

-  and by changing the option HorizSync in the Section "Monitor"

   I got that by chance; is there some rational way of determining the
   best range to use?

But I am still with problems (1) and (2).   

I read about 2 more indirect ways (than the i810 patch) of having the
i915GM card to be fully used:

- install the i915 so called "snapshot" from
  <dri.freedesktop.org/snapshots>, as described, e.g., here:
  <http://www.nerdgirl.dk/linux/installation.php>

- install the so called 915resolution tool at
  <http://www.geocities.com/stomljen>

I'm not clear at all about the differences between the 3 ways I've
mentioned above (not even it that statement makes sense at all).  

Is there a chance that by following one of these ways (they are
already beyond what I would usually dare to do) I will be able to
solve problems (1) and (2)? Or is there something else I should try to
do?

Sorry that I couldn't find a shorter way of explaining my problem.
Thanks in advance for any hint.

Alain