Is there a way to get virtual terminals working under knoppmyth/debian? When knoppmyth boots I can see the console on my monitor connected to the video card but once the itvtv_fb driver loads, the monitor freezes with a bunch of garbled ivtv output. Knoppmyth continues to book OK and the display goes out the 350 to the TV as expected. At this point I'd like to be able to login and do some sys maintanence (like enabling rshd, rlogind, telnetd, etc in (x)inetd) but hitting <ctrl><alt>f1 (or any fx key) doesn't work. Under every other linux dist I've used (including running gentoo-based mythtv on the same machine from another partition), this works fine.

How do I enable this in knoppmyth/debian?

Include details!!!!

It just so happens that I am able to figure out what your problem is. Your problem is the pvr-350. Knoppmyth already has the extra terminals. But there is no way to access them when using the tv-output on your pvr-350. To log in you have three options:
1) ssh in from another computer
2) press <alt><x> to open an xterm window on your pvr-350's tv-output
3) disable the pvr-350's tv-output, make changes, reenable the tv-output when you are done

#1 is the best solution. You can even export displays to a remote X11 server running on another computer through ssh very easily.

As I said it works fine on the exact same box running gentoo-based mythtv and in both cases I'm sending X out the 350 so I know it's not just an issue with the 350 out.

After re-reading your response I realize that you are thinking of something different than I am. When I hit <ctrl><alt>Fx, I am expecting the normal monitor to show a console prompt, not the TV-out on the 350. This is what works fine in gentoo w/ mythtv and the 350 tv-out but does not under debian/knoppmyth. I'd simply like the console prompt on the monitor so I can login and enable the services I want to run (so I can then always login over the network).

Displaying an xterm on the TV is very hard to read so I dont want to go that route.

Indeed I agree. What X serer are you using on your gentoo box? If it is XFree86 try comparing the two /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 files (use diff or apt-get xxdiff for a X11 graphical version). If your gentoo box is using xorg, I'm not sure how interchangable the config files are.

Also check the first line in the /etc/lilo.conf file. And what type of VGA cards are in your boxes? The nvidia drivers are known to mess up vurtual terminals so I've heard.

I spent a little time today looking at this but still haven't figured out why it doesn't work on knoppmyth. On gentoo I run xorg vs xfree but I've ran xfree-based dists before and used virtual terms. i installed grub on my knoppmyth partition and tried manaully adding a variety of different boot options but I never could get it working. Sometime in the future when I have time I'll pull my .config over from gentoo and rebuild the debian kernel and see if that fixes it.

Thanks for the help.