Running on real hardware...

[Dan Kegel]

Haven't gotten nvidia working yet, but here's a recipe that at least lets
you run 'sudo startx' and get an X terminal using vesa.

1) on a throwaway vm, install a 15.05 daily, then do

pkgs="
libc6
libevdev2
libfontconfig1
libfontenc1
libice6
libmtdev1
libpciaccess0
libpixman-1-0
libSM6
libtinfo5
libutempter0
libx11-6
libx11-xcb1
libxau6
libxaw7
libxcb1
libxdmcp6
libxext6
libxfont1
libxft2
libxkbfile1
libxmu6
libxmuu1
libxpm4
libxrender1
libxshmfence1
libxt6
nvidia-304
nvidia-331
x11-common
x11-xkb-utils
xauth
xbitmaps
xinit
xkb-data
xserver-xorg
xserver-xorg-core
xserver-xorg-input-evdev
xserver-xorg-input-kbd
xserver-xorg-input-mouse
xserver-xorg-input-void
xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
xserver-xorg-video-vesa
xterm
"
rm -rf staging
mkdir staging
cd staging
apt-get download $pkgs
for pkg in *.deb
do
    dpkg-deb -x $pkg .
done
tar -czvf x.tgz usr etc

2) transfer x.tgz to the Core system,
remount / read-write,
unpack into /,
put 'xterm &' in ~/.xinitrc
sudo startx

I also had to add video modes to /etc/X/xorg.conf, but that's probably just
my crappy monitor.

That's an awful lot of bytes just to run X.  Presumably a real use
would whittle that
down and pickle just the minimal amount needed for your app (possibly
remounting using atime, or tracing using strace, to see which files
are really needed
during a full run of the app).  And then there's the whole question of
how to build a custom version of Core that includes these files,
and lets you build a delta update stream for the custom system...