i915: KMS no longer works

Since 2.6.31-11.38, KMS flat out stopped working, apparently because it's impossible to load module i915 dependencies in a predictable order:

[ 1.803206] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[ 1.826263] i915 0000:00:02.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[ 1.826273] i915 0000:00:02.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 1.826303] [drm:drm_fill_in_dev] *ERROR* Cannot initialize the agpgart module.
[ 1.826362] [drm:intelfb_restore] *ERROR* Failed to restore crtc configuration: -22
[ 1.826417] DRM: Fill_in_dev failed.
[ 1.826464] i915 0000:00:02.0: PCI INT A disabled
[ 1.826475] i915: probe of 0000:00:02.0 failed with error -22
[ 1.832569] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: Intel 945GM Chipset
[ 1.833111] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: detected 7932K stolen memory
[ 1.855733] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: AGP aperture is 256M @ 0xd0000000

Until now, I had worked around this by listing the requisite modules in order in /etc/initramfs-tools/modules as follows:

intel_agp
i915 modeset=1
fbcon

However, even that work-around fails to load the modules in the right order.

ProblemType: Bug
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: meracine 5172 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] Tiedostoa tai hakemistoa ei ole
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xefebc000 irq 21'
   Mixer name : 'SigmaTel STAC9200'
   Components : 'HDA:83847690,10280201,00102201 HDA:14f12c06,14f1000f,00100000'
   Controls : 7
   Simple ctrls : 5
Date: Sat Oct 3 15:24:22 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=b957667b-7881-42f6-b502-c28eca645d58
MachineType: Dell Inc. Latitude D430
Package: linux-image-2.6.31-11-generic 2.6.31-11.38
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=cd9a1998-9fb2-4208-aba6-bc2ba8f5e36a ro quiet splash crashkernel=384M-2G:64M,2G-:128M
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=fi_FI.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=fi_FI.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-11.38-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-11-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.20
SourcePackage: linux
Tags: ubuntu-unr
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-11-generic i686
WpaSupplicantLog:

dmi.bios.date: 06/20/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A01
dmi.board.name: 000007
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA01:bd06/20/2007:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeD430:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn000007:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Latitude D430
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.