Knoppix 3.3 11-19 runs fine with these cheatcodes:
vga=normal
xmodule=cirrus (or svga, but cirrus makes the boot sequence note the driver used)
xserver=XF86_SVGA
fromhd=/dev/hda7
myconfig=scan (it's on hda7 with the poor-man's install)

Here's the hardware:
ISA SpeedStar64 (CL-GD5434 cirrus chipset) 2meg DRAM
(Ok, laugh already.)
SOYO 5BT motherboard with Award 1B7 BIOS, all set at defaults except for floppy a-b switch (yes, I do have a 5.25" floppy, and it has to be at the end of the cable=a:, until switched in BIOS)
K6-II-266MHz
256meg SDRAM
Maxtor 20gig split into 12 partitions, two for that other OS, one big nice one for Knoppix hdinstall (hda12, on the outside of the platter), the others for swap and a slack or LFS install eventually, after I get this X issue resolved.
Phillips 804 CDRW (which doesn't like to boot my cd unless tickled, but that's ok now)
SoundBlaster16 ISA
One of those Xxxmodems, 56k
Netware Ethercard
Compaq 1024 Color (462)
Total cost: about $100 bucks, with some pieces from the trash bin.

X runs in 8-bit mode on this card, and it appears that's all it's going to do, according to the xfree86 documentation. Ok, I can live with that, as long as I get 1024x768. (Though that other OS gets me 16-bit there...)

However, despite lots of tricks picked up from these nice fora, I still can't get the hdinstall to run X. I get the "module not found" "no screens" error, using fbdev, svga, or cirrus for the xmodule. The XF86Config-4 seems ok; I've tried many configs.

Seems the module isn't loaded or isn't there to load (could it be the installer isn't actually identifying the card correctly, since it's ISA?) Anyone got a cheap fix to get that module in there?
Thanks,

BTW, same issues with the 3.1 and 3.2 disks.