1) corwin <corwin@canonical.com> typed:
:I have recently started using NetBSD on a bunch of systems after
:having done a fair amount of stuff with both Linux and OpenBSD.  My
:question is, does NetBSD have the virtual console feature that these
:other two OS's have, and if so, how do I enable/use it?  I've have not
:managed to find any documentation on this.

2) Michael C. Richardson <mcr@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca> typed:
:  Assuming you are using NetBSD/i386, you can get it by enabling "pcvt" (vt0)
:in your kernel config file, and disabling "pccons" (pc0).
:  If you aren't using the i386 architecture, you may have to wait for 
:the next release (or grab -current) in order to get the improved,
:architecture independant wscons driver.

Of course, it's all useless unless you also set up your /etc/ttys file and
/dev directory correctly.  Your /dev dir should have been setup by default
but just to check you'll want the following
% ls -l /dev/ttyv?
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root  wheel      3 Jun  7  1997 /dev/ttyv0 -> vga
crw-------  1 root  wheel  12, 1 Jun  7  1997 /dev/ttyv1
crw-------  1 root  wheel  12, 2 Jun  7  1997 /dev/ttyv2
crw-------  1 root  wheel  12, 3 Jun  7  1997 /dev/ttyv3
crw-------  1 root  wheel  12, 4 Jun  7  1997 /dev/ttyv4
crw-------  1 root  wheel  12, 5 Jun  7  1997 /dev/ttyv5
crw-------  1 root  wheel  12, 6 Jun  7  1997 /dev/ttyv6
crw-------  1 root  wheel  12, 7 Jun  7  1997 /dev/ttyv7
crw-------  1 root  wheel  12, 8 Jun  7  1997 /dev/ttyv8

And /etc/tty should have lines like:
    vga     "/usr/libexec/getty Pcvt"       pcvt25  on    secure
    ttyv1   "/usr/libexec/getty Pcvt"       pcvt25  on
    ttyv2   "/usr/libexec/getty Pcvt"       pcvt25  on
    ttyv3   "/usr/libexec/getty Pcvt"       pcvt25  on
    ttyv4   "/usr/libexec/getty Pcvt"       pcvt25  on
    ttyv5   "/usr/libexec/getty Pcvt"       pcvt25  on
    ttyv6   "/usr/libexec/getty Pcvt"       xterm   off             # X11 :1
    ttyv7   "/usr/libexec/getty Pcvt"       xterm   off             # X11 :0
And also comment out (with ``#'') a ``console'' line if you have it.
``kill -HUP 1'' or reboot as appropriate.

You can make more/less secure if you want.  Also, if you don't use X then
change ttyv6/7 appropriately.
-- 
Geoff Wing   <gcw@pobox.com>            Mobile : 0412 162 441
Work URL: http://www.primenet.com.au/   Ego URL: http://pobox.com/~gcw/