What do I need to know about backing up and restoring config files before I embark on a video driver adventure?

I have already had one failed experiment installing the proprietary ATI Radeon drivers on a machine with an ATI 3450 card plus ATI 3200 intergated graphics. I am using OpenSUSE 11.1 AMD64 with KDE 4.1 desktop. After things went wrong, my install would only boot to the shell, and (being a newbie) I didn't know how to get my KDE back.

Is there an FAQ or HowTo someplace that explains how somebody can get their window manager back after pooching their video configuration? What do I need to do besides restoring xorg.conf from a backup copy?

If you have a working xorg.conf file that is using a standard driver such as svga, ati, nv.. then that should get you back to a workinfg desktiop by simply putting that file back.

to install the proprietary ATI Drivers on Suse, I would suggest following the 'Official Directions' on the OpenSuse webstie. .
http://en.opensuse.org/ATI_Driver_HOWTO

The one click install looks like it should be fairly easy..

You could also try the kernel Radeon drivers, which means reconfiguring the kernel. I don't know how they stack up performance wise because I don't play games, but they've worked fine for me in the past on a variety of laptops with Radeon chips -- including the 3D OpenGL and AIGLX stuff, which my current desktop with integrated via chrome won't do.

in case your GUI fails to start, run starx and see the error messages. you might be able to fix the file yourself.
Yesterday I was trying to edit the file so my touchpad tap click will be disabled but on the instructions it didn't specify where to add the line to disable that feature. I was able to use pinpoint where the error was and edit the file using emacs.
good luck!

You might think of this

If you have not done so, you might enter your BIOS and turned off the onboard graphics chip. This would give the installation process one one device to find and configure.