Cannot run any 3D programs
 

Recently I installed ati 3.9.0 driver on suse 9.1, the installation was successful, but whenever I run any 3d program, it just stops there and does nothing.

Machine configuration:
Motherboard: Abit N7F-S 2.0 (NForce2 chipset)
CPU: Athlon XP 3200+
Memory: 2x512MB dual channel
OS: SUSE 9.1

Here's what I did to install the driver (these are steps suggested by README file of ati driver):

1. Downloaded the ati 3.9.0 driver from SUSE ftp server
2. Upgraded linux kernel from 2.6.4 to 2.6.5-7.95
3. Installed kernel source 2.6.5-7.95
4. Installed ati driver by: rpm -Uvh fglrx-3.9.0-2.1.i586.rpm
5. Reboot
6. cd /usr/src/linux && rm -f .config && make cloneconfig && make prepare-all
7. Installed ati kernel module source by: rpm -Uvh km_fglrx-3.9.0-2.1.i586.rpm
8. cd /usr/src/kernel-modules/fglrx
KERNEL_SOURCE=/usr/src/linux make modules
KERNEL_SOURCE=/usr/src/linux make install
depmod -a
9. Configure X11 by: sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx -b /usr/X11R6/lib/sax/profile/firegl
10. added Load "dri" to XF86Config
11. start X

All were successful till now, but

12. Run glxgears. No response. Run fglrxinfo. No response. Run fgl-glxgears. No response

Here's part of the XFree86.0.log, from it you can see that 3D is enabled.

...
(II) fglrx(0): Acceleration enabled
(II) fglrx(0): X context handle = 0x00000001
(II) fglrx(0): [DRI] installation complete
(II) fglrx(0): Direct rendering enabled
(II) Loading extension FGLRXEXTENSION
(II) Loading extension ATITVOUT
(==) RandR enabled
(II) Setting vga for screen 0.
...

I tried several times and got the same result. I even replaced the libGL.so with ATI
website version, same result. I tryed removing SUSE version and directly installing ATI website version with no success (could not compile the kernel
module).

What's wrong?

I'm thinking it is because the 2.6.5-7.95 kernel not compatible with the driver. Is it
safe to force rpm to install an older kernel?

Any suggestion is appreciated.