Hi all. Have just been compiling a new 2.6.11 kernel and have been having problems with the new radeon driver. It wont let me see boot messages and I cant see text in console. Just a blinking cursor. X works fine though. No probs with the old driver though, just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. Also for some reason, my sound card is configured and when I start ximms, it plays, but no sound comes out. I can get beeps from the system, but no sound from alsa? Havent ever had that problem before either.
Correction, I can get system beeps from the console but not at all in x

Well I found the problem with alsa, in the 2.6.11 kernel with my soundcard, the headphone jack sense and line jack sense both have to be set to off.

Indeed, I had the same problems with my Radeon card since I started using the 2.6.11 (and above) kernels.
During several (quite many) recompilings I managed to get: console text but no AGP support or no console text and AGP; one or the other, no way both. I sent a few emails to linux-kernel@vger.org, I got two replies telling me something like "oh, ok, we'll see what can we do" in one of them and in the other some guy invited me to try out the 2.6.12-rc1 kernel (without luck at that moment) and since then...silence from those guys.
Anyway, during a certain recompile, I accidentaly checked the SMP support option and...surprise...I got a nice VGA text along with AGP support. I went with that certain kernel for a while until I found out what are the necessary kernel settings in order for the card to work properly:
CONFIG_MODULES=y
CONFIG_MODULE_UNLOAD=y
CONFIG_KMOD=y
CONFIG_MTRR=y
CONFIG_AGP=m
CONFIG_AGP_chipset=m (where chipset is the one present on your motherboard, for safety you could compile them all)
CONFIG_DRM=y
CONFIG_DRM_RADEON=m
# CONFIG_FB is not set (uncheck Framebuffer support that is)
CONFIG_TMPFS=y
And yes, now it works fine, without SMP support enabled.

Try these settings and let me know if it works. Indeed, ATIs are some pain in the neck under Linux.

Glad to see i'm not the only person who has cmpiled the 2.6.11 kernel numerous times. Finally got framebuffer working with direct rendering, and have nice small text on boot and even a boot logo. Using the old radeon driver compiled in. I think my main problem was the new video console option in the -11 kernel, would cause the card to freak out in text mode. I hadnt previously had any probs with my radeon card untill I tried this 2.6.11 kernel. Thanks Harken for the config, I tried it and it didnt work, but that was with the video console option checked and after getting this image working, I am so sick of compiling it, that I dont want to try anything else for now.Tried with the vesa framebuffer compiled in and no go, tried so many different things that I cant remember now. Now for some reason though the alsa problem has half come back. When loading the desktop the kde sound cuts out half way through and I dont have sound. Looking at alsamixer, the headphone jack is enabled again. When its turned off, sound comes back. Strange, even after storing the settings.