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I recompiled Blender in debug mode. Here is the same stack trace as above, but with more details.

#0 0x40992580 in __driUtilMessage ()
from /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/radeon_dri.so
#1 0x40993313 in __driUtilUpdateDrawableInfo ()
from /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/radeon_dri.so
#2 0x40263669 in __indirect_glCompressedTexSubImage3D ()
from /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
#3 0x40263a92 in glXCreateContext () from /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
#4 0x083d0ce1 in GHOST_WindowX11::installDrawingContext (this=0x8b39080,
type=GHOST_kDrawingContextTypeOpenGL) at GHOST_WindowX11.cpp:657
#5 0x083d2427 in GHOST_WindowX11 (this=0x8b39080, system=0x89b29e0,
display=0x89e8f88, title=@0xbfa50458, left=1279, top=0, width=321,
height=218, state=GHOST_kWindowStateNormal,
type=GHOST_kDrawingContextTypeOpenGL, stereoVisual=false)
at GHOST_WindowX11.cpp:196
#6 0x083ccf7f in GHOST_SystemX11::createWindow (this=0x89b29e0,
title=@0xbfa50458, left=1279, top=0, width=321, height=218,
state=GHOST_kWindowStateNormal, type=GHOST_kDrawingContextTypeOpenGL,
stereoVisual=false) at GHOST_SystemX11.cpp:217
#7 0x083ca991 in GHOST_CreateWindow (systemhandle=0x89b29e0,
title=0x87a70d2 "Blender:Render", left=1279, top=0, width=321, height=218,
state=GHOST_kWindowStateNormal, type=GHOST_kDrawingContextTypeOpenGL,
stereoVisual=0) at GHOST_C-api.cpp:162
#8 0x08189e44 in window_open (title=0x87a70d2 "Blender:Render", posx=1279,
posy=0, sizex=321, sizey=218, start_maximized=0) at ghostwinlay.c:343
#9 0x0822ede4 in open_renderwin (winpos=0xbfa50570, winsize=0xbfa50578,
imagesize=0xbfa50568) at renderwin.c:642
#10 0x0822f1c4 in renderwin_init_display_cb (rr=0x8b5a470) at renderwin.c:740
#11 0x083fa7f8 in render_initialize_from_scene (re=0x8bcb790, scene=0x8b12398)
at pipeline.c:2152
#12 0x083fa85b in RE_BlenderFrame (re=0x8bcb790, scene=0x8b12398, frame=1)
at pipeline.c:2167
#13 0x0822fc87 in do_render (anim=0) at renderwin.c:1094
#14 0x0823012e in BIF_do_render (anim=0) at renderwin.c:1231
#15 0x0825a1f4 in blenderqread (event=311, val=1) at toets.c:563
#16 0x081695c7 in screenmain () at editscreen.c:1450
#17 0x0812449f in main (argc=1, argv=0xbfa50c34) at creator.c:697

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As you can notice, it's the DRI driver crashing. Apparently it doesn't like odd sized rects for drawing.
You might consider to report this to the dri team? Or, try other driver versions, or the official ATI drivers?

BTW: I cannot redo the error here either (ATI 9600 on osx).

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The size of the image doesn't matter. To generate the following, all I did was change a new model from its defaults to 400x300 (press F12) and again to 600x400 (press F12) and again to 800x600 (press F12). Eventually it crashed. You are right, something is funny with the Radeon DRI.

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x00000000 in ?? ()
(gdb) backtrace
#0 0x00000000 in ?? ()
#1 0x40b135cb in __driUtilMessage ()
from /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/radeon_dri.so
#2 0x40b14313 in __driUtilUpdateDrawableInfo ()
from /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/radeon_dri.so
#3 0x4041e669 in __indirect_glCompressedTexSubImage3D ()
from /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
#4 0x4041ea92 in glXCreateContext () from /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
#5 0x0830dc87 in GHOST_WindowX11::installDrawingContext ()
#6 0x0830ef71 in GHOST_WindowX11::GHOST_WindowX11 ()
#7 0x0830c08d in GHOST_SystemX11::createWindow ()
#8 0x0830abb7 in GHOST_CreateWindow ()
#9 0x081636a9 in window_open ()
#10 0x081d84a5 in open_renderwin ()
#11 0x081d9c10 in renderwin_init_display_cb ()
#12 0x0832b854 in render_initialize_from_scene ()
#13 0x0832d562 in RE_BlenderFrame ()
#14 0x081d929f in BIF_do_render ()
#15 0x081f154d in blenderqread ()
#16 0x0814ef10 in screenmain ()
#17 0x08114b55 in main ()

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Check on the new render output option to draw in the Image Editor (Scene buttons, first panel). It might be related to 2nd window drawing.

This is a generic request to test your bug report and see if it is still an issue in 2.5alpha2 if so please let me know by making a comment in this report ie 'also in 2.5alpha2' and I will add it to the 2.5 bug list.