ATI driver meta howto

Kind of a howto review, installed 10.3 on Xanthippe yesterday (Asrock board, 64bit dual core Athlon, Radeon X1300 graphics card). Compared to the 10.2 install (ATI driver vs. X.org RC battle) it went relatively smooth. Although self-assembled, the hardware is by no means bleeding edge by now, and any good OS should be able to cope with it. Some peculiarities: no LAN connection during install, but no problems later on, kdm started only after a reboot.
Next challenge: ATI drivers and compiz/xgl. I found the following howtos: E@zyVG™, unofficial ATI wiki and openSuSE and decided to follow E@zyVG™.
Comments:
Don't ever use the openSuSE/ATI repo! As of this moment, the newest driver version, 8.41, is the only one they supply, and it only works with the HD 2xxx cards. On the ATI page, you can select both OS architecture and graphics card in order to choose the right driver.
You need the kernel sources and development tools; most howtos also recommend a cleanup:
# cd /usr/src/linux
# make mrproper
# make cloneconfig
# make modules_prepare
# make clean
The above cleans up in your kernel sources and configures everything as it is with the installed kernel, which is not necessary in an all new system, but does no harm. To be sure, also remove any previously installed ATI drivers:
# rpm -e $(rpm -qa | grep fglrx)
The 8.40 driver has no 10.3 option yet, but 10.2 works perfectly:
# sh ./ati-driver-installer-x.xx.x-yy.run –-buildpkg SuSE/SUSE102-AMD64 - replace the AMD64 by IA32 for 32bit systems.
This generates the driver rpm, usually in the same directory as the shell script. Install with
# rpm -Uvh fglrx*.rpm - options Update, hash mark progress bars, verbose
# ldconfig
# cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup
# aticonfig --initial --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf
This updates your library cache and your xorg.conf. Both seem to be optional, but not exactly harmful, but you'd better backup your xorg.conf before any modification.
Stop your graphical system with # init 3 (runlevel 3) or # rcxdm stop, log in as root and configure your X server:
# sax2 -r -m 0=fglrx
After a necessary reboot, I tested the install with fglrxinfo, glxinfo and glxgears. I tried out compiz/Xgl and all kinds of video playback, no problems there.

Postscript from a SuSE 11 point of view: Although the main overlay issues are still unsolved, the ATI driver performs OK installed from the openSuSE ATI repo and with the default config. THe bleeding edge drivers you still get only from ati.amd.com, of course.