My question is how would one go about installing the ATi drivers with Slackware 8.1? I've downloaded them, rpm2tgz ed them, and then used installpkg to install it, but they don't seem to be working. What else must I do to install them successfully?

TheMad

Ah, thanks.

TheMad

Hi TheMad I am also ATI 9700 PRO user I have learned how to install the driver and will share it with you. ATI now has a new driver fglrx-glc22-4.2.0-2.5.1.i586.rpm. There are few way to install the driver:

#1 if your kernel is 2.4.8 then you shouldn't have much problems just do rpm -Uhv fglrx-glc22-4.2.0-2.5.1.i586.rpm this should install the driver you can check if the driver was installed just type "fglrxinfo" it should respond with something like :"ATI 9700 PRO Pentium III" if you see it than the driver was installed also type "glxinfo | grep direct " to see if direct rendering is enabled you should see the response "direct rendering yes" (good for gaming).

#2 If your kernel is not 2.4.8 then you might have problems installing the driver. rpm -Uhv fglrx-glc22-4.2.0-2.5.1.i586.rpm
might say something about no module being present for your kernel and saying that you can run the 2D applications but no 3D asking you to go to /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod and type "./make.sh" and then go to /lib/modules/fglrx and type "./make_install.sh" well if you can do the first command without any complains about your kernel being named 2.4.xxxcustom instead of your version then you should be able to go to /lib/modules/fglrx and type ./make_install.sh if not then you should do this steps in order to get your ATI 9700 PRO driver installed:
su -
urpmi kernel-source ( I assume you know how to do that) if not just download the kernel-source.rpm for your kernel version from your distro FTP and do rpm -Uhv kernel-source.rpm the installation might fail due to dependencies so make sure to install all the required packages ( e.g xxx-devel etc) for successful installation.
cd /usr/src/linux
make mrproper
cp /boot/config.xxx /usr/src/linux2.4xxx/.config (for my Mandrake the config file was in /boot dir for you it might be in other dirs
read the Readme.txt file on ATI website)
make oldconfig
vi or gedit Makefile in /usr/src/linux2.4xx and change the line EXTRAVERSION = xx custom to EXTRAVERSION = your kernel e.g for 2.4.19-16mdk EXTRAVERSION = -16mdk
make dep
Thats it! After that just cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod and type ./make.sh
cd /lib/modules/fglrx and type ./make_install.sh
If this don't work try to just run rpm -Uhv fglrx-glc22-4.2.0-2.5.1.i586.rpm ignore all the messages and recompile your kernel this should automatically create a module for ATI 9700 and load it.