On Mepis 3.3.1 using Debian patched Xfree 4.3.0, I have to use the vesa graphic driver and while for work that is ok,
graphic performance is such that I can't watch DVDs (machine is a Dell Dimension D610).

So, I installed xorg 6.8.2 which has support for the i915 graphic chipset (using the i810 driver)
getting the packages from
deb http://debian.linux-systeme.com/ unstable main

BTW, I verified that xorg and i810 work in Ubuntu 5.04 (well, only when using but I now I did get no benefits I see in Ubuntu which I hunted down to this problem (from the Xorg log):

(II) I810(0): Allocated 64 kB for the scratch buffer at 0xffea000
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (Unknown error 999)
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device)
drmOpenDevice: Open failed
....
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card14
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device)
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device)
drmOpenDevice: Open failed
(II) I810(0): [drm] drmOpen failed
(EE) I810(0): [dri] DRIScreenInit failed. Disabling DRI.

the /dev/dri/card* devices are there when running ubuntu.

In Mepis I load the relevant kernel modules :

root@3[edoardo]# lsmod | grep drm
drm 57364 1 i915
agpgart 28080 3 drm,intel_mch_agp,intel_agp

but still /dev/dri/ is empty on Mepis.
any ideas ?