I just went through a rough installation of SUSE 9.1 (I didn't tell it the right packages to use so I had to do it twice) but I got my system up and running. However, I noticed my ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 would not run any 3D applications. So, I checked the drivers, found them to be out of date, and started looking for an alternative. I found a nice article by TheRebublican titled Installing ATIs Proprietary Drivers . I followed all the steps and ran the "startx" command. I really didn't see any change, so I turned my system off and took a break. Unfortunately, when I try to get back into Linux, it fails to load KDE. Being a newbie, this really limits what I can do. Anyone know a fix?

im also a newbie in linux, and i started with the same version as you around 3 week ago, i got the same problem, with the same graphic card lol, that's weird....
To answer to your question , do this:

-login as root on console
-type "YaST" ( capital letters are important)
-if YaST doesnt work, type "Sax2" or "Sax"
-With the command listed below, YaST will appear ( graphically, just as in linux )
-go set up the graphic option
-save then exit
-then before reboot type "startx"
-linux suSE 9.1 should run
-Reboot and all will be setted up


I hope that ull resolve ure problem, coz i got the same one and i wasnt really happy