Can't Start X w/ ATI (Please Delete! Different problem than posted)

Question

UPDATE: Video drivers are not the problem.  HAL policy problem.
I just did a fresh install and update on my dell.  I followed the beginner's guide to setup X and my drivers don't want to work.  I've tried xf86-video-ati and xf86-video-radeonhd.  The only driver that does work is the vesa for a no xorg.conf setup, but obviously the resolution is not up to par.  The only thing that happens with the ati drivers is a blank screen and a freeze after I start X.  I'm wondering if it a bad config for my monitor, otherwise I have no clue. 
The only problem I could pull out of my Xorg.log was this:
RadeonHD (0): Query for Restore Registers: failed
Here's my xorg.conf
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "glx"
Load "dri2"
Load "extmod"
Load "dri"
Load "dbe"
Load "record"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
EndSection
Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
#Option "NoAccel" # [<bool>]
#Option "AccelMethod" # [<str>]
#Option "offscreensize" # [<str>]
#Option "SWcursor" # [<bool>]
#Option "ignoreconnector" # [<str>]
#Option "forcereduced" # [<bool>]
#Option "forcedpi" # <i>
#Option "useconfiguredmonitor" # [<bool>]
#Option "HPD" # <str>
#Option "NoRandr" # [<bool>]
#Option "RROutputOrder" # [<str>]
#Option "DRI" # [<bool>]
#Option "TVMode" # [<str>]
#Option "ScaleType" # [<str>]
#Option "UseAtomBIOS" # [<bool>]
#Option "AtomBIOS" # [<str>]
#Option "UnverifiedFeatures" # [<bool>]
#Option "Audio" # [<bool>]
#Option "AudioStreamSilence" # [<str>]
#Option "HDMI" # [<str>]
#Option "COHERENT" # [<str>]
#Option "ForceLowPowerMode" # [<bool>]
#Option "LowPowerModeEngineClock" # <i>
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "radeonhd"
VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
BoardName "M96 [Mobility Radeon HD 4650]"
BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 1
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 4
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 8
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 15
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
Any help or ideas would be appreciated.  Thanks.
Last edited by silentcontender (2010-04-03 03:15:00)

Answer 1

Thanks for the moral support.  It should be okay as long as I can get something to work.  This is just supposed to be a work netbook; I don't need fantastic display, I just *need* display.
After following some of your advice in this thread, I found I'm able to start a graphical environment, however no keyboard input works.  I'm blacklisting gma500_fgx, but need advice as to where to go from there.
I've also been following the thread here but I can't comprehend half of what's going on there.  I do understand that Ubuntu (and, I imagine, its derivatives) are able to work on it.  Maybe it's just worth saving myself the headache and install Lubuntu for the short-term (until Arch has more standard packages for this hardware)?  Do you think there will be at least aur-standard packages for support for this hardware relatively soon?
Thanks.