Ubuntu 10.04 Dual Video Card Setup AKA how to disable KMS

At KRUU (kruufm.com) we've been thinking about implementing dual head setups for a couple years now with Ubuntu. It hasn't been a huge priority so we've tried to accomplish it with the equipment we've had on hand & it just hasn't worked...until now! 
 
I sprung for a couple Jaton 208PCI-128TV low pro PCI cards. Low pro & PCI because it has to sit upright in a 2u case on a mini-itx Atom 330 board with only a single PCI slot & integrated Intel graphic card. I bought these cards in particular because there were several reviews claiming that the card just worked. I thought if that were true setting up the dual head config would be manageable. I wish it would have been as easy as that.
 
Turns out the newer Linux kernels have integrated video mode settings called Kernel ModeSetting (KMS). If I understand correctly, this is because video chipsets are removing support for text mode display (Linux fbcon manual). Anyway, this was the root of so many problems including:

• Hardlocks
• No screen output
• Inability to switch to console

so I nuked it.
 
To turn off KMS do the follow appropriate to your video cards (I did both Intel & Nvidia):

# ATI Radeon:
echo options radeon modeset=0 > /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf

# Intel:
echo options i915 modeset=0 > /etc/modprobe.d/i915-kms.conf

# Nvidia (this should revert you to using -nv or -vesa):
echo options nouveau modeset=0 > /etc/modprobe.d/nouveau-kms.conf
 
You can also try the fbdev driver for the cards but that didn't work for me. You can read the full article here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/KernelModeSetting
 
Once that was out of the way most of the tutorials I found online were relevant again. Additionally that restored the ability to use console so X -configure worked again & did most of the work for me. nouveau, nv, nor vesa worked for the Jaton so I did end up going with the driver directly from Nvidia.