Is there any way to get the penguin logo on boot with Intel KMS? (i915 driver)
 

In the past, I've rebuilt the kernel with the i915 driver built-in, and that works fine. But is there any way to do this without recompiling your kernel? I read that I shouldn't use vga=XXX with Intel KMS.

I tried adding the i915 module to my initrd, but that gives me an error message on boot. Something like "Unable to initialize the agpgart module"

Your only options for getting the intel KMS framebuffer loaded early in the boot process is to compile i915 in or to get it added to your initrd. Unfortunately, I have no experience with the latter option on Slackware.

Adam

To get the penguin logo on boot, you will need the vga=XXX to select a graphics mode that can support the penguin logo.
On my netbook with a 1024x600 screen that uses the i915 driver, I have the vga=789 line in /etc/lilo.conf as well as "video=inteldrmfb:mode=1024x600" as a kernel option in the "append =" string.
On boot, I see the penguin logo (actually two) and the boot proceeds using the font available in the vga mode.
When the intel framebuffer ls loaded, the font switches.