I just built a new computer. It has a Asus P5E3 Deluxe MB, 700w PS, and a Sapphire HD 3870 graphics card. Fedora 9 installed without any problems, but when it boots, the screen goes crazy & I can't see anything. I know that ATI has a RPM driver package for it, but how can I get it installed when I can't see anything on the screen. I am fairly new with Linux although I was a Unix system administrator with AT&T back in the 80's.

Personal experience is that ATI and Linux still aren't getting along very well, even though Nvidia has had support for awhile now
Anyway, If you have net configured already, you should be able to download & install the driver from a console (i.e. no GUI running). To do this, when GRUB loads up (before Fedora boots) hit 'e' to edit kernel parameters. Add the word "single" to the end of the kernel boot command; this, when booted up, will put you into single-user mode. From there you should be able to download the driver with wget. Installing from there usually involves running the install script like IIRC the ATI script makes an RPM (the Nvidia script just installs the driver); if that's the case, just do after the RPM is built.
The prerelease Xorg in Fedora 9 caused a bunch of problems with newer cards; hope it doesn't apply to your card but heads-up anyway.

Thanks for the reply. I downloaded the ati*.run file on another computer & then put it onto a CD. On the new computer, I booted via the Fedora 9 install CD recover menu option. I then mounted the cdrom & copied the files onto my hard drive. I got a list of the installed packages of the ati*.run file & found that it had Fedora/F9. I tried to build the package via sh ati*.run --buildpkd Fedora/F9 (* is the rest of the file name) but get error messages saying the it needs either the kernel-devel or kernel-headers package. When I find them, I will put them onto a CD via the old computer & then transfer them to the new computer. Does anyone know where I can find the kernel files? I don't thing I will ever buy an ATI video card again!!

After installing the kernel-devel & kernel-headers, I still get the same message. I chatted with an ATI tech & he said that they don't support Linux. So I'm returning the video card. Will cost me $19.50 re-stocking fee. This will be the last ATI card I will ever buy!! Any ideas for a good video card? I'm not a gamer so I don't need a top of the line card.

I'm not trying to be insulting so don't take offense but I have to ask: Are you sure the kernel and kernel-devel were the same version and if so, did you add the new kernel to GRUB and boot into the new kernel before compiling/installing the driver? Only reason I ask is because it's a common mistake. I'd hate to see you spend money if you don't have to.

Also try here:
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Main_Page
Everything I can find shows that the ATI driver is technically not fully open-source so they have to support it somewhere along the line; my hunch is the tech didn't know/feel like dealing with it. ATI cards *do* work with Fedora, they can just be a pain sometimes. I'm waiting to hear from someone I know who's running an older ATI with Fedora 9 as well, I'll post when I hear from him, should be today or tomorrow. A good part of the problem lies not with ATI necessarily but with Fedora 9 which I'll get to in a minute.

If the ATI's already on its way back and you're going Nvidia, my personal experience is that PNY cards are damn near indestructible, however lately (~ last 2 years) I've been running XFX cards exclusively in all my machines (tweakable and lifetime warranty). Nvidia card choices are, in order of performance (and therefore price), the 6, 7, 8, and 9 series (then there's the 200 series for gamers, which you said you aren't). Keep in mind, however, that you will *still* need kernel-devel to match your running kernel and I still recommend staying with 2.6.25 (my experience is that there's little difference between .25 and .26 in terms of performance and .27 has been causing problems for a number of distros other than Fedora). I personally had issues with my 9600GT and Fedora 9 not even giving me a graphical installer; this is due to them using a prerelease Xorg 7.4 in Fedora 9. My 7600GS worked fine, however, and the other 6- and 7-series cards shouldn't be a problem. Later Nvidia drivers may work with later cards now; you can save yourself the headache of compiling the binary from Nvidia by simply getting the Fedora-specific Nvidia driver from the Livna repo, it will pull whatever dependencies (like a new kernel and kernel-devel) it needs and it *should* work but I personally gave up on Fedora about a month ago after 3 years of loyalty, and this was one of the reasons. There are methods and how-to's out there for modifying the xorg.conf and rolling back the xorg install to 7.3, but still...

On the bright side, Fedora 10 comes out soon...

Hope this helps, post back with any other questions you may have-

Thanks for all of the help!! I had already sent the video card back. I bought a nvidia GEForce 9800GT card. And I took your advice about Fedora 9. I am now running Ubuntu 8.04. It installed everything including the video card without any problems.

9800GT = graphical horsepower; thought you said you weren't a gamer?? You'll get some serious Compiz on with that one, I assure you.

I have to say that personally, I have nothing against ATI cards; I know people who run them and are perfectly happy with them, I just find Nvidia easier to deal with.

I loved Fedora; it was my first distro (Core 3) and their cutting-edgeness enabled me to learn a lot more about Linux than I would have otherwise (got me props from the Slack/Gentoo crowd for using it as a first distro too). I will get a copy of 10 when it comes out & throw it into VMware to see how much they've fixed/changed since 9 (which I hear is quite a bit); I just won't be using it as a main distro anymore because I've basically outgrown it, and at the same time they seem to have lost direction after 8 came out.

Glad to hear you got everything sorted-