Been meaning to write this up for a little while now so here it is (assuming the box is all built with ATI card(s) installed):

1. Install Ubuntu (10.10)
2. Remove the drivers it will automatically install that will conflict:

sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx*
sudo apt-get remove --purge xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-radeon

3. Re-install some prerequisites (not sure if they are needed but it doesn't hurt - java is definitely needed for Diablo):

sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-dri xserver-xorg-core
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre

4. Install the proprietary ATI driver you can find here by:

chmod +x <file_you_just_downloaded.run>
sudo ./<file_you_just_downloaded.run>

When it asks you if you want to build a package for your distribution or just install the defaults, go with the defaults.

5. Open a terminal and enter:

sudo aticonfig --initial --adapter=all

This will create a working xorg.conf file. If this doesn't work you will have to re-boot first. In any event re-boot after you have created this file so that you will be running using the proprietary ATI Catalyst driver.
 
6. Download and install the OpenCL dev and runtime packages (i386 or AMD64).

7. Log out and then back in to initialize the OpenCL libraries. If you have more than one GPU you will have to issue:

export DISPLAY=:0

in order for all your GPUs to be seen by your mining software.

8. Download and untar Bitcoin. Look in bin/<your_arch>/ to find bitcoind. Start it. Use ./bitcoind getinfo to confirm you have the blockchain and some connections to the network. If it's your first time running it you will need to set an RPC user and password that your GPU miner will need to authorize with. To do this create a 2 line file at ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf that contains rpcuser=<your_RPC_username> for the first line and rpcpassword=<your_RPC_password> for the second.

9. Download your mining software. I only have experience with Diablo. Start it up by running:

./Diablominer-Linux.sh -w128 -u <your_RPC_username> -p <your_RPC_password>

You can also throw an "f" value in there to control the interactivity of your desktop.

If you wish to try m0mchil's Python-based miner hit this thread and follow the instructions beginning at the line that says "Download PyOpenCL".

You should see your miner start showing you a hash value!

PROFIT ;-)

If you wish you may want to overclock your card. I pushed my clock speed to max and left the memory at stock.

Please let me know if this sequence doesn't work as this is all from memory. I'm happy to troubleshoot your setup, such as I am able, and revise these notes. I get about 343Mh/s (w/ Diablominer and -f1) from a 5870 using this.

edited with feedback from users of this guide

Darn! That'll teach me for staring at bitcoincharts.com all day ;-)

Mine is better... much shorter.

Possibly... I've had a couple of epic battles with sound cards, most recently the Xonar Essence in my media server. I'll PM you.

I'm sorry but I don't know if it will work under 9.10 or not. Is there a particular reason you are running 9.10? I would recommend at least upgrading to 10.04 (LTS) and then trying. In any event please let us know how it works out for you.

Hmm... you don't want to run a system that you can't update. I'm about to setup another box with a 5970 and will step through these directions again to make sure they are all kosher. There shouldn't be an issue with updates. If you need to get your desktop back boot into recovery and issue:

aticonfig --initial --adapter=all

to have it rebuild your xorg.conf file.

System crash on update? Ouch. I have not experienced that. I have experienced having to re-install the proprietary AMD Catalyst driver after a kernel update but only on my 64 bit systems.

Thanks for the note about the link to the dev package. Updated.

And again thanks for the update about changing the configure instructions. I hadn't used poclbm at the time I write this so hadn't stepped through the required steps for different architectures. Hopefully someone finding this thread in the future will be helped by this. 

cheers.

I don't understand what you have to do with this:

8. Download and untar Bitcoin. Look in bin/<your_arch>/ to find bitcoind. Start it. Use ./bitcoind getinfo to confirm you have the blockchain and some connections to the network. If it's your first time running it you will need to set an RPC user and password that your GPU miner will need to authorize with. To do this create a 2 line file at ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf that contains rpcuser=<your_RPC_username> for the first line and rpcpassword=<your_RPC_password> for the second.

Where do you create the file?