SuSe 10.3 & ATI 8.41 Drivers

Well I finally figured out how to get SuSe 10.3 and the new ATI linux drivers (8.41) to work. I must admit it somewhat of a hack but it worked. (for the most part)

My current system as is relevant to this post:
SuSe 10.3 x86_64
AMD Athlon X2 3800 Dual-Core
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro AGP
Samsung SyncMaster 941BW

First, use the new "one-click" service to install the drivers: ati.ymp
For most people this should be sufficient to get the drivers work. Unfortunately it didn't for me.
Every time I booted and Xorg would start I got a blank screen and the computer appeared to be frozen.
After analyzing /var/log/Xorg.0.log I always saw the following:

(WW) fglrx: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:1:0:1) found
(WW) fglrx(0): board is an unknown third party board, chipset is supported
(WW) fglrx(0): Only one display is connnected,so single mode is enabled
(WW) LoadModule: given non-canonical module name "glesx.so"

After exhausting all internet resources I finally came across a posting (somewhere) that removing /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/glesx.so solves the problem. So I removed it and started the X server. Same problem, still got the black screen except this time my computer wasn't frozen. I was able to switch to a different terminal and edit my /etc/X11/xorg.conf to the following:

# /.../
# SaX generated X11 config file
# Created on: 2007-10-05T18:51:00-0400.
#
# Version: 8.1
# Contact: Marcus Schaefer , 2005
# Contact: SaX-User list
#
# Automatically generated by [ISaX] (8.1)
# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!
#

Section "Files"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/local"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/URW"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/PEX"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/japanese:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/kwintv"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/uni:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/xtest"
FontPath "/opt/kde3/share/fonts"
InputDevices "/dev/gpmdata"
InputDevices "/dev/input/mice"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "on"
Option "IgnoreABI" "on"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "extmod"
# Load "glx"
Load "dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "kbd"
Identifier "Keyboard[0]"
Option "Protocol" "Standard"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbModel" "microsoftpro"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
Driver "mouse"
Identifier "Mouse[1]"
Option "Buttons" "12"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Name" "Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse"
Option "Protocol" "explorerps/2"
Option "Vendor" "Sysp"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection


Section "Monitor"
Option "CalcAlgorithm" "XServerPool"
DisplaySize 410 257
HorizSync 30-81
Identifier "Monitor[0]"
ModelName "SAMSUNG SYNCMASTER"
Option "DPMS"
VendorName "SAM"
VertRefresh 43-75
UseModes "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes[0]"
Modeline "1440x900" 106.5 1440 1520 1672 1904 900 903 909 934 +hsync -vsync
EndSection


Section "Screen"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1440x900" "1280x960" "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
Device "Device[0]"
Identifier "Screen[0]"
Monitor "Monitor[0]"
EndSection


Section "Device"
BoardName "Radeon X1950 Series (RV570 7280)"
BusID "1:0:0"
Driver "fglrx"
Identifier "Device[0]"
Option "FSAAMSPosY0" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX1" "0.000000"
Option "Stereo" "off"
Option "FSAAScale" "1"
Option "FSAAMSPosY4" "0.000000"
Option "CapabilitiesEx" "0x00000000"
Option "no_dri" "no"
Option "PseudoColorVisuals" "off"
Option "FSAAMSPosX0" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX2" "0.000000"
#Option "NoDDC"
Option "FSAAMSPosY5" "0.000000"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
Option "CenterMode" "off"
Option "no_accel" "no"
Option "FSAADisableGamma" "no"
Option "FSAAMSPosX4" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY2" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX5" "0.000000"
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
Option "mtrr" "off"
Option "FSAAMSPosY3" "0.000000"
Option "StereoSyncEnable" "1"
Option "FSAAMSPosY1" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX3" "0.000000"
Option "ForceGenericCPU" "no"
Option "Capabilities" "0x00000000"
Option "UseFastTLS" "2"
Option "GammaCorrectionI" "0x00000000"
Option "GammaCorrectionII" "0x00000000"
Option "FSAACustomizeMSPos" "no"
Option "ScreenOverlap" "0"
Option "BlockSignalsOnLock" "on"
Option "FSAAEnable" "no"
VendorName "ATI"
Option "EnablePrivateBackZ" "no"
Option "KernelModuleParm" "agplock=0"
Option "ForceMonitors" "notv"
Option "backingstore" "true"
Option "KernelModuleParm" "locked-userpages=0"
VideoRam 524288
EndSection



Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout[all]"
InputDevice "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
Option "Clone" "off"
Option "Xinerama" "off"
Screen "Screen[0]"
EndSection


Section "DRI"
Group "video"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "DAMAGE" "no"
Option "Composite" "false"
EndSection

I restarted the X server and presto, it worked. I'm sure a similar action will also work on Fedora (which is what I started with). Checkout this thread at the fedora forum . I must mention that although the above worked for me, it is NOT a permanent solution. Hopefully the issue will be resolved in the next ATI Linux driver release.
Good luck, I hope this helps other people.