Thanks in advance for your reply:

hour 24 and the coffee is losing its glamour

xfree86 4.3.0 experimental v5
ati radeon 8500 All in Wonder
DRI compiled from:
http://dri.sourceforge.net/snapshots/README.Debian

xfree86 loads okay?:
II) RADEON(0): [drm] installed DRM signal handler
(II) RADEON(0): [DRI] installation complete
(II) RADEON(0): [drm] Added 32 65536 byte vertex/indirect buffers
(II) RADEON(0): [drm] Mapped 32 vertex/indirect buffers
(II) RADEON(0): [drm] dma control initialized, using IRQ 11
(II) RADEON(0): [drm] Initialized kernel GART heap manager, 5111808
(II) RADEON(0): Direct rendering enabled

but glxinfo shits itself:
noc:/home/admin# glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: No
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating,
GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample
client glx vendor string: ATI
client glx version string: 1.3
client glx extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_ATI_pixel_format_float,
GLX_ATI_render_texture
GLX extensions:
GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating,
GLX_EXT_import_context
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
OpenGL version string: 1.4 Mesa 5.0.2
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,
GL_ARB_texture_cube_map, GL_ARB_texture_env_add,
GL_ARB_texture_env_combine, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3,
GL_ARB_transpose_matrix, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_blend_color,
GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_texture_env_add,
GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3,
GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias
glu version: 1.3
glu extensions:
GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess


I believe my libraries are correct - but there must be a problem here????
noc:/home/admin# ldd /usr/X11R6/bin/glxinfo
libGLU.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libGLU.so.1 (0x4002c000)
libGL.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.so.1 (0x400a7000)
libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x4012b000)
libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x4013a000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x40201000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x40252000)
libstdc++.so.5 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5 (0x40274000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x4032d000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x4045f000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x40468000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)

my relevant X config:

Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "record"
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection


Section "Device"
Identifier "Radeon"
VendorName "ATI"
Driver "radeon"
# Option "NoDCC"
Option "AGPMode" "4"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection


Thanks again
Brian