hello everyone,
thanks for all the replies, but I guess I didn't explain myself very well.
It's not the 1-bit thing, I knew about that and even got myself a nice 
little extention which makes the monitor 1-bit when I start the booter 
(1.8).

So it's something else.
more facts :
terminal type : vt220 ( it asks when I login and I reply vt220)
dt 's error message is : "vt:couldn't find free line"
	in vt.c I read that this "should never happen" HUH?
X has in fact 9 windows, all garbled beyond readability
stty -e reveals : 87 rows and 192 columns, which is right, I counted.

thanks for your time.

-- 
Tinusz Nijmeijers                                 Un sot trouve toujours un
tinusz@xs4all.nl                                  plus sot qui l'admire. S.H.