ydl 2.3 and radeon 8500

[yellowdog-general@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com]

Using kernel 2.4.20-benh-8 and XFree86 4.3 I was able to get ydl going 
on a Radeon 8500.
I installed ydl 2.3 with ati-r128, switched after installation to r200. 
With stock kernel dexter.py and xconfigurator report the proper card 
(8500QL), But console and X are limited to 640 pixel resolution. Using 
the same tools under the current kernel fail detecting the video-card.
The resulting XF86Config-4 file lists only fbdev driver support, 
doesn't load dri, doesn't load v4l but defaults to 640*480 modelines 
despite specifying otherwise in the graphical tools.
So I changed XF86Config-4 manually to load driver ati, dri, v4l and 
forced 1024*768 modelines, and defaulted depth to 24.
This works but gives a virtual desktop of the physical size of 640*480 
pixels.
I had to change the fb-resolution via:
fbset 1024x768-75 (what a pleasure this man-page is)
works with up to 16 bit,
After a startx,  X11 runs in 24 bits, true (non-shifted) color, proper 
mouse-cursor, true 1024*768 resolution. Logging out of X11 doesn't 
crash the system.
How big is the effect of dri?
glxgears gives roughly 100 FPS (up from 60).
dri's not loaded.
So this leaves two things to be desired:
1. the X-log says it couldn`t load dri because of a version conflict 
(1.1.1 installed, >1.5 needed)
2. the fb-res has to be set manually each time X is started.
Can someone verify that? How to get the dri-driver? dri.sf.net sends me 
into a mental loop, saying its included in XFree...

mn.