Here is some hope for you.
I too have been fighting with an intel 845G, but mine is in an IBM built machine.
I just loaded the elrepo kernel-ml on a CentOS 6.6 system with an intel 845-G and now the X comes up correctly, i.e., at boot gdm is available visually for login. YYEEESS!!!
With either kernel, if you want any GL performance, you do _not_ want to use nomodeset, i.e., with nomodeset tux racer renders ~1FPS @800x600. Vesa is in the same boat and eats your main cpu to render anything.
With the standard _2.6_ kernels with CentOS 6.[56], even though the screen was blank (but with a mouse pointer) you could log in by simply typing the first letter of your username, press enter, enter your password, press enter, then wait for login, and because characters were messed up logout, at which point the restarted gdm and X would be working fine and you could login for a nice session.
Found this trick somewhere in the archives of this list IIRC.
Note:` telinit 3; telinit 5` OR `killall gdm-binary` do *NOT* help.
I don't have an xorg.conf or anything in xorg.conf.d, and I don't have any changes to the kernel line since install, i.e., using CentOS defaults.
With the elrepo kernel-ml, it does seem like there is a little more load on the system, but login has become normal and I see ~14FPS in tux racer @800x600 (OK it is not a speed daemon, but at least it is smoothed). After login the screen res defaults to 1920x1080 IIRC.
After login I have been using xrandr to change the screen res I want for each task (many web sites don't look right at anything above 1024x768).
xrandr -q #to see available sizes
and
xrandr -s 1024x768
good luck, and if this works for you and/or you find a better way, please let us know.
Even when this disclaimer is not here:
I am not a contracting officer. I do not have authority to make or modify the terms of any contract.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark LaPierre [mailto:marklapier@xxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2014 9:35 PM
> To: Mark LaPierre; Mail List CentOS Users
> Subject: Re: Dell Dimension 2400 W/Intel 845-G Video
>
> On 10/05/14 22:47, Mark LaPierre wrote:
> > Hey Y'all,
> >
> > I've been Googeling and experimenting for two days trying to find a way
> > to deal with the Intel 845-G video chipset in this Dell Dimension 2400.
<SNIP>
> >
> > There's a lot a cruft on the internet about problems with the Intel
> > 845-G chipset but no solutions that work for me. Does anyone know
> > how to get an successful installation on this hardware?
> >
>
> First I want to thank all of you who have offered up proposed solutions.
>
> I got the netinstall to work. Then used yum update to bring it up to
> the latest and greatest. I worked with 6.5 but got nowhere there. Then
> the 6.6 point release was ready so I did the yum update dance in hopes
> that 6.6 would be more cooperative.
>
> Today I've been googling, experimenting, and pretty much failing
> miserably. The best I've managed to get is to set the boot command to
> nomodeset, and the xorg.conf "Device" driver to vesa. I got 640x480
> resolution with the image offset to the left and down. Pretty much
> unusable. No improvement from my previous best effort documented above.
>
> I am able to open System/Preferences/Display where I could select a
> different resolution if I could see and reach the [Apply] button. That
> really doesn't matter since the only resolution available on the pull
> down is 640x480.
>
> I can't get the intel driver to yield a screen at all.
>
> I experimented with many VGA=NNN modes in combination with the vesa
> driver. No joy there. Not even the GDM screen comes up. The best I've
> been able to get from the intel driver is a mouse pointer in the middle
> of an otherwise black screen.
>
> When the graphics come up I can check the Xorg.0.log where I can see
> that the vesa driver says that resolutions including 1280x1024, 104x768,
> and 800x600 are viable options. I can't get it to use any of them.
>
> What think yee? Is there any hope of getting any resolution greater
> than 640x480 out of this thing?
>
> --
> _
> °v°
> /(_)\
> ^ ^ Mark LaPierre
> Registered Linux user No #267004
> https://linuxcounter.net/
> ****
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