You can directly write into the framebuffer device /dev/fb (assuming that your console uses one, by default). To prevent a console from showing on it, just disable all of your virtual terminals (you will then only be able to log-in remotely). You should get more than one framebuffer device if you have multiple adapters (this needs to be confirmed).
A C example that draws a rectangle on the framebuffer is here:
Paint Pixels to Screen via Linux FrameBuffer
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <linux/fb.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
int main()
{
int fbfd = 0;
struct fb_var_screeninfo vinfo;
struct fb_fix_screeninfo finfo;
long int screensize = 0;
char *fbp = 0;
int x = 0, y = 0;
long int location = 0;
// Open the file for reading and writing
fbfd = open("/dev/fb0", O_RDWR);
if (fbfd == -1) {
perror("Error: cannot open framebuffer device");
exit(1);
}
printf("The framebuffer device was opened successfully.\n");
// Get fixed screen information
if (ioctl(fbfd, FBIOGET_FSCREENINFO, &finfo) == -1) {
perror("Error reading fixed information");
exit(2);
}
// Get variable screen information
if (ioctl(fbfd, FBIOGET_VSCREENINFO, &vinfo) == -1) {
perror("Error reading variable information");
exit(3);
}
printf("%dx%d, %dbpp\n", vinfo.xres, vinfo.yres, vinfo.bits_per_pixel);
// Figure out the size of the screen in bytes
screensize = vinfo.xres * vinfo.yres * vinfo.bits_per_pixel / 8;
// Map the device to memory
fbp = (char *)mmap(0, screensize, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fbfd, 0);
if ((int)fbp == -1) {
perror("Error: failed to map framebuffer device to memory");
exit(4);
}
printf("The framebuffer device was mapped to memory successfully.\n");
x = 100; y = 100; // Where we are going to put the pixel
// Figure out where in memory to put the pixel
for (y = 100; y < 300; y++)
for (x = 100; x < 300; x++) {
location = (x+vinfo.xoffset) * (vinfo.bits_per_pixel/8) +
(y+vinfo.yoffset) * finfo.line_length;
if (vinfo.bits_per_pixel == 32) {
*(fbp + location) = 100; // Some blue
*(fbp + location + 1) = 15+(x-100)/2; // A little green
*(fbp + location + 2) = 200-(y-100)/5; // A lot of red
*(fbp + location + 3) = 0; // No transparency
//location += 4;
} else { //assume 16bpp
int b = 10;
int g = (x-100)/6; // A little green
int r = 31-(y-100)/16; // A lot of red
unsigned short int t = r<<11 | g << 5 | b;
*((unsigned short int*)(fbp + location)) = t;
}
}
munmap(fbp, screensize);
close(fbfd);
return 0;
}
As long as you have the build tools available, along with the headers for your system, it should compile. For a thrill, run it from SSH and watch it draw on a physical screen that you haven't logged-in to.
It should be noted that there is a wide array of tools that work against the framebuffer, outside of X11, but they won't access the framebuffer directly. Instead, they work through an additional abstraction layer called DirectFB. DirectFB will allow the same applications to run both in and outside of X11... Including both MPlayer, GStreamer, any app that incorporates SDL (which calls DirectFB), as well as a light, popular fake-X11 container called XDirectFB (I believe that it should run X11 apps, but not be as overburdening as a typical window manager).