7950 linux ubuntu atconfig / GPU recog issue HELLLLP

SO!

Have a few issues here -

Very little bg in linux. A friend installed it to get a miner up and running, but Im not too familiar with this much command interface, and might have created some issues.

I have a gigabyte UD5 MB, and am running between 3-5 Sapphire, radeon 7950 GPUs off an AMD, CPU and 2 x corsair 750 RM PSUs - I have been on a bit of a learning curve so at first I didnt even have risers, at that point I was two on the board and already having issues with GPU recognition. The 1 x 16 slot wasnt racognizing, and looking face down on the board, thats furthest left. I got 3 GPUs running at under 500 kh but then starting messing with the command line to introduce new ones, or a variation. This meant also messing with the cgminer config file to try and find a config that didnt freeze the OS. Later I figure out this was mainly a ram issue, but regardless, important I explain, I have done an absurd amount of hard reboots.

SO - I finally got the machine to run overnight on 3 gpus that were on non-powered 16x16 risers. Then I got my molex powered ones in the mail, so I thought I'd try them. When I introduced them, the aticonfig command wouldnt recognize them. The motherboard has 5 slots, so I tried all of them with the new powered risers, only to thing they are screws. When I tried to pute the old risers back in, cgminer wont find the third. It always finds 0 and 1 (0 is my monitor) but two wont show up. If I run:

atconfig --adapter=all --intitial

it shows all three - but still wont register in CGminer

and if I run

atconfig --adapter=all --intitial -f

it fails as well

both are saying that writing to the file name failed.

Im really new at linux so am pretty clueless about how to ammend - If anyone can help, in very simple terms Id really appreciate it.

Also, Id really like to be able to introduce the 4th GPU but it seems the 1x16slot isnt even responsive and even locks up the OS - I dont get it...

Using CGminer 3.7.2 Ubuntu 12.04 processor AMD FX(tm)-8320 x 8

PLEASSSE!!! DYING HERE!!