I’m trying to re-purpose an Akimbo set-top box as a Mythtv frontend. I’ve gotten Ubuntu onto the hardware but I’m having some issues configuring X. Most of the problem stems from the fact that there is no vga out, only tv-out.

In an attempt to get X squared away, I’ve installed XFCE, with GDM as the desktop manager. But I realized that once GDM starts, I didn’t have a way to control the console. This guy gave me my answer.