I just bought an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro and I am installing Debian. The driver is only packaged by ATI in the form of an RPM (which i havent really had the "pleasure" of using for a couple of years. How do I install the driver, or where can i find the driver packages in maybe a debian package...maybe something I can just apt-get... As of now I am typing this in lynx Someone has to have done this before, if so please post.

You can get a gui for apt.

apt-get install synaptic

If you have rpm installed, the basic command for installing is

rpm -ivh <package name>.rpm

Replace the i with U for upgrading (and it will work for install as well).

# Guides to software and installation
LNAG - How do I install a program I downloaded from the Internet?
Rute Guide's software explanation

# Configuring X
Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO - video cards
The Linux XFree86 HOWTO
Common X configuring tools:
Debian - dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86
Mandrake - XFdrake
Redhat 7.3 down - the setup utility leads to several config tools
Redhat 7.3 up - redhat-config-xfree86
You may have these tools:
XF86Setup
XFree86 -configure
Xconfigurator
xf86cfg
xf86config
xconf
ATI Linux drivers

lol, all i am asking is if the RPM will work if i install it on a Debian system. I've used nearly every distro, but I try and stay with the native packaging system (ie away from RPM). I know for a fact that RPM is pretty much useless in Slackware for instance.

so my real question, installing an rpm on a debian system will work the way it is supposed to? if not, where can i find a tarball or deb pkg of it, because I dont see any?

Hopefully your reply will help readers who have never configurated X before though, or who do not know the simple "rpm -ivh foo" command....

Oh and I prefer apt by hand, gui frontends take all the fun away from it

Install it and see if it works. Report back and we will all know then.

The alien program will attempt to re-do a package from one packaging system to another. I never have used it.
Well, they certainly get in the way of seeing the error messages IMHO. I prefer having a CLUE myself.

Maybe that is why I have so much trouble in Mandrake!

If you have rpm with debian, use rpm2tgz to reformat. Decompress and copy the relevant files [...you probably won't need icons, guis and links ] manually to their corresponding directories in your / tree.
cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod
sh make.sh
cd ../
sh make_install.sh
...the usual, not in X, make_install as root, you need kernel-sources ...this will build the fglrx.o
modprobe fglrx
fglrxconfig ...to write the new config
...startx

If you built your own kernel, make sure you have no video driver built into it and if your motherboard chipset is supported, you should be in business.

what is the name of the driver i need to reference to inside my XF86Config file? fglrx?

Yes fglrx ...but I would suggest using fglrxconfig to write the new config even if you're familiar with editing XF86Config-4 as there's some specific entries you may not be familiar with ...and it will reference the driver correctly too.