X dri problem with kernel 1830

[William John Murray]

  Hello there,
          I have an odd problem with X using the latest kernel. My
laptop, with ATI radeon Mobility M6 graphics, on which I have DRI
enabled and RADEON driver, does not start correctly from boot (no RHGB).
The login screen is 2* too big, wraps round the screen and the colour is
all wrong. Same after login.
   But press control-alt-tab and the new X start is fine.
Comparing Xorg.0.log shows that the first try has the following error:

(WW) RADEON(0): Direct Rendering is disabled by default on Radeon
VE/7000
	hardware due to instability, but has been forced on with
	"Option "dri" in xorg.conf.  You may experience instability.
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (Unknown error 999)
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (Unknown error 999)
drmOpenDevice: Open failed

The last 4 lines are missing on the next attempt, and all is well.
Ok, it does say there may be instability, but this is so repeatable it
is weird. And it started with the yum update which brought the 2.6.15
kernel, which is suspicious. Any ideas?
      Thanks,
           Bill
Ps:
Section "Module"
        Load  "dbe"
        Load  "extmod"
        Load  "fbdevhw"
        Load  "glx"
        Load  "record"
        Load  "freetype"
        Load  "type1"
        Load  "synaptics"
        Load  "dri"
        Load "GLcore"
EndSection