KernelModesetting (KMS)

To enable Kernel Modesetting, you need:

Intel

i915

To enable KMS on i915 hardware, just add the following lines to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules :

# Enable Kernel Modesetting
intel_agp
drm
i915 modeset=1

And regenerate your initramfs:

# update-initramfs -k `uname -r` -u

At the next boot, the kernel should be handling modesetting.

Known bugs

pm-utils

#524243 fixed in 1.2.5-2

vbetools
Running this will cause X to fail to start up, and may cause other problems. (This is a kernel bug.)
linux-2.6
Do not load any framebuffer drivers other than inteldrmfb (which is provided by i915) if you enable KMS, else you will probably see hard lockups when trying to start X.