How to enable KMS on an Intel GM45 X3500HD

Hi all!

Here you are "Yet Another How-To" to enable KMS on an Intel board ;-)
... of course, on ArchLinux... but the instructions can be easily adapted for others distributions

The procedure to activate the graphics drivers on the adapter directly during kernel loading is simple:

• modify the file /etc/mkinitcpio.conf having the MODULES string like this:
  

MODULES="intel_agp i915"

• modify the archlinux kernel line in /boot/grub/menu.lst

kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sd[x][n] ro i915.modeset=1

where /dev/sd[x][n] is your / partition and i915.modeset=1 substitutes any vga=NNN or video=... options that won't be supported by KMS which find itself for the best resolution.

That's all, now you should see the very first post messages of kernel startup in the very ugly and big "standard console character", but then you will see the rest of the startup messages in the correct (and autodetected) resolution.
Furthermore the switching between Virtual Consoles and the X server will be really faster than before.

So enjoy your Intel video adapter's capability with the new Kernel Mode Setting you just configured on you machine!

Keep on hacking! ;-)