I really appreciate all the comments thanks guys.
Is there no way to flash this card if you can only boot linux with generic VGA drivers?? I assume that's what you are saying in regards to "safe mode".
I can boot linux in the safegfx thingy, GUI -with shell- but aticonfig doesn't work, it acts like X is not running.
Can you not flash the firmware via a TTY?
The only way i know of is on windows, which i can also run in safe mode (but atiflashwin won't work under windows safe mode).
And i don't think the win98 boot would be more usefull than win7's safemode.