nVidia, TVOut via Framebuffer - all without X

[shanz1999]

Hello,
I have 2 graphics cards - both are nVidia FX 5200.
One controls the primary monitor and the second will control a TV screen via an application I will write.
I don't want to use X at all so I currently just boot Ubuntu to a prompt with no Gnome graphics.
I want to use a Framebuffer to control the TV screen but am struggling!

I am so confused about "nv", "nvidia", X, xorg.conf, "vga=", "nvidiafb", "vesafb", "vga16fb", "devfb" etc.

Do I need to install the "nvidia" driver or can I rely on "nv"?
Do I need to use "vesafb" or "nvidiafb"?

At the moment, if I unblacklist the nvidiafb module, it gets loaded and I see 3 /dev/fb*'s. However, if I blacklist nvidiafb and unblacklist vesafb - I only get /dev/fb0 which is using vga16fb. I guess this is my primary monitor rather than my TV screen.

Can anyone offer any advice?

[Thunderbird]

Of all the drivers you mentioned you can only get tvout when you use nvidia's drivers in combination with X. The other way to get tvout is to connect only a tv to a videocard and then boot the system. I don't think a framebuffer driver will work correctly with it.

Further note that the 'tvout at boot' way only works if you boot from the primary videocard. Other videocards aren't started at system startup, to initialize those you most likely need X.