ATI Radeon Driver Creates a Blank Screen

[jon-tee]

I'm running SalixOS KDE13.37 (kernel 2.6.37.6) on a HP Laptop with ATI Radeon HD 4350. I decided to download and install the Proprietary driver.
I followed the steps provided in the Salix OS wiki and afterward,I was amazed after rebooting to discover a blank screen. It appears as if the proprietary driver was not recognized or installed properly to the X11.org file.

I was forced to reinstall the O/S and use the xf86-video-ati driver. Is the wiki accurate in regards to the installation steps for the ATI driver? I'm open to trying a second time with proper instructions or advice. Thanks.

[gapan]

Did you install the kernel-source package before you built the ati driver?

[witek]

I was forced to reinstall the O/S and use the xf86-video-ati driver.

I don`t think you were forced to reinstall the system. In the future just add init 3 to lilo during boot and you will boot into text-only mode.

[jon-tee]

Yes....I ran 'slapt-get -i kernel-source & 'slapt-get -i kernel-headers'. Afterwards, I ran 'sh amd-driver-installer-12-2-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg'.
Next ... I ran 'ls *.tgz'. This provided me with the following: 'fglrx-8.95-x86_64-1.tgz'.

I then ran 'installpkg fglrx-8.95-x86_64-1.tgz'.

Last I ran 'aticonfig --initial' and then rebooted my laptop which resulted in a blank (black) screen after the reboot. I noticed the X11 was initiated prior to the the blank screen appearing.

[jon-tee]

I tried overwriting the file /etc/ati/amdpcsdb with /etc/ati/amdpcsdb.default (cp /etc/ati/amdpcsdb.default /etc/ati/amdpcsdb) and restore the xorg.conf (since Xorg replaces /etc/X11/xorg.conf with a failsafe config file).

I rebooted and still came up with a blank screen. I tried the TAB at LILO and entered 'init 3' but I was not able to restore the x11config file.

I'm still learning Slackware/Salix OS.

[witek]

Assuming you succesfully entered init 3 level, just remove /etc/X11/xorg.conf (this file is generated with aticonfig). Then type init 4 and X should work as before.

[gapan]

Are you sure the proprietary driver you downloaded matches your graphics card? I never had an ati so I have no idea, but maybe it's something to consider.

[JRD]

I have a fucking ati card at work too (didn't remember the exact model, sorry).
And guess what? I have exactly the same problem as you. Never managed to make it work. I tried building a package from the ati "run" script, or even directly installing the driver. I got exactly the same behavior: when X starts, I got blank (actually plain black) screen, with a cursor in the upper-left corner that disappear after one second. After that I'm unable to switch back to a console or do anything on it.
I didn't try to ssh from another computer, so not sure if it's a kernel oops or a kernel panic or a freeze or just Xorg which crashes. Hard to find time to install/test a driver, drop to a collegue computer to try to ssh to my machine, all of this while keeping working :/
I tried a bunch of different ati options for Xorg...none of them made a difference. I, of course, verified that my card is actually supported by this driver. I will post the exact model tomorrow if you want to know. Maybe it's the same model as jon-tee!

P.S. the free radeon driver works ok for me. I only have some glitches some times (vertical scrolling with the mouse for example), and there is no way to play quake2 at launch...way too slow.