Karmic crashes due to Ati drviers???
Hm try to keep it short and clear...

Upgraded from 9.04 - 9.10 via fresh install. (some months ago)

I'm having random crashes, symptoms:

1. First I get "screen freeze" or my desktop freezes for no apparent reason
2. After a few seconds screen turns black or white or brownish
3. I can here the computer running, my hdd light is working like mad, I can hear the hard spining, and wifi is active(but the screen is still black).
- then I reboot-
4. At startup I get the loading screen, and hear the welcome drums, but right when gnome should start I get freeze screen followed by black screen or etc. again
-reboot again-
5. I can load gnome but after a second or two (eg. before awn loads) I get screen freeze etc. all over again
-reboot again-
6. I load gnome completely but after 10 or so seconds i get points 1,2 and 3 again.
-reboot again-
7. Finally everything starts normal but emerald is turned off (shows active in compiz but not shoving on desktop as decoration), or awn doesnt start and I have to start it manually or something else is not running like it should

Points 4-6 sometimes are repeated more than once before I get to point 7 eventually.

All of the crashes occur while preforming random operations (using FF flash plugin(surfing watching online videos), using vlc, every day computer usage, tex typing, sometimes even when I'm not using computer, some times if i'm using all of my virtual desktops at once, crash occurs) I cannot find a relation.

Somehow all of this is looking to me like ati drivers crash, maybe it's in some kind of conflict(or something) with Compiz(or something).
I've used proprietary drivers fglrx drviers via system>administration>hardware drivers, and I tired ati drivers from the official site.
I'm also using Karmic on a home server, with nvidia card, and without compiz, and there are no crashes.

So right now I'm not looking for a quick fix, I'm looking for the cause, I'm out of ideas:

1. Could emerald as window decorator be the cause?
2. Flash plugin for linux...?
3. AWN?
4. Compiz?
5. ...

So my questions are:

1. Is there some kind of a system check that could tell me what part of my configuration is causing the problem
2. Are there any reported problems similar to this that someone knows about(cause I didn't find any)
3. Could this be a global Karmic bug, issue....
4. Would a simple roll back to 9.04 solve my problems? (and is there a way to do that without a fresh install)

I know this is not a trivial problem, but bare with me and try to get me some of your insight and opinions.

My machine specs are in the sig.

THNX guys, give it a shot!

your problem is you're running ubuntu. try bsd, mandriva, or redhat/fedora. anything after U-8.04 is crud. sorry.
or pclos (pc linux os. very nice home and server os). pcbsd is another freebsd-friendly os. easy to use and still uses pkg_add -r xxxx format to bump up what ever you want. fast and fun. not like ubuntu has turned into. rock on!

Hmm well I am seriously thinking about Fedora, but I'm no t an expert Linux user, so I still don't know much about it. I was wondering if do use Feodora how much difference is there...