I'm using a FireGL V7700 with Arch Linux x64. When booting to a command line,
when drivers are loaded, the screen goes into power saving mode, and the system
becomes unresponsive.

Booting with `nomodeset' works OK. If I run "$ modprobe radeon modeset=1", the
screen goes power saving mode, the system stops responding to open ssh
session(s), and the caps lock key no longer works (kernel panic?).

I've also tested with a Puppy Linux Live-CD, with the same results
(unresponsive on driver load).

I've tested a HD 4650 in the same system, and everything works fine.

$ lspci -v | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RV670
GL [FireGL V7700] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])