[SOLVED] ATI Driver - No Video After Startx

Question

I've recently completed a fresh install of Arch on a new machine. Everything was going great until I attempted to configure the proprietary ATI suite. I'm using a Radeon 4670 HD card. After I execute startx, I am left with blank screens. I've been following instructions by way of the Arch Wiki, in the ATI Catalyst article. I have correctly installed catalyst-daemon and catalyst-utils. Once installed, I issued:
# aticonfig --initial=dual-head
# aticonfig -v
After that, I rebooted. This is when my screen stayed black after trying to start X. To remedy this (as according to the wiki) I booted to init3, then issued:
# rm /etc/ati/amdpcsdb
I rebooted, and was still faced with the same issue. Next I tried:
# aticonfig --initial=dual-head --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf
# aticonfig -v --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf
Reboot, still no luck. After this I tried:
aticonfig --acpi-services=off --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf
Again, after reboot, still a black screen. At this point I feel like I'm just jacking up the issue worse than it was already. I'd be grateful for any information regarding this issue. Thanks.
edit: I forgot to mention that I am attempting to run dual monitors. On the back of the card, there is a DVI in, and VGA in, and an HDMI in. I'm using two VGA monitors, so one cable is going to the VGA, and the other with an adapter running to the DVI in.
Last edited by rogue (2011-08-04 09:19:53)

Answer 1

First of all, thank you to everyone who took the time to reply, all of your help is very appreciated. I finally got things working (well sort of.) I tried to blacklist the radeon module in rc.conf, which didn't seem to do anything. So then, I created a conf file in /etc/modprobe.d/ to blacklist the radeon module, which did work. I am now able to boot into XFCE with sort of functioning dual monitor support- this will be my next task. Does anyone know why blacklisting with a modprobe conf file takes precedence over blacklisting in rc.conf? I'm guessing that modprobe is one of the first things checked at load-up. Should I keep the module !'d in rc.conf as well, or is it safe to remove that listing?
Last edited by rogue (2011-08-04 09:23:36)