> > When you were fighting with the ethernet cards, you were able to use
> > your keyboard to get ifconfig results, correct?
>
> The keyboard works, up until the point NetBSD initialises it in the full
> installation.

Hm.  Am I to understand that you never actually completed the NetBSD
installation until after you spent a couple of days finding a compatible
ethernet card?  I assumed that you had installed NetBSD and THEN worried
about finding a compatible ethernet card.

However, if you had run ifconfig only after booting from an insall disk,
then I have a theory...


> > Do you have any idea what you might have changed to cause the keyboard to
> > stop working?
>
> No idea at all, but it happens as soon as the first boot from hard disk
> sets it up.

Try getting your hands on a kernel built with ``pccons'' (device pc0)
installed for the keyboard/console.  This is an older console driver (the
first or second that NetBSD used?) on the i386.  INSTALL kernels still use
it, presumably for space-savings reasons.  The GENERIC kernels (which are
normally installed) use a different/newer driver (one that does things
like virtual consoles; (^&).

I vaguely recall other people observing that some old systems didn't like
the new console driver, but were happy with the older driver.  This sounds
suspiciously like your problem.

One place to get such a kernel is off of your install disk.  I _think_
that you should be able to boot the install disk, manually mount your hard
disk, copy over the install disk's ``/netbsd'' kernel, unmount the hard
disk, and reboot.  (Well, copy it to something like ``/netbsd.new'' on
your hard disk, and make sure that it's what you want to use.  (^&)

I don't know what gets removed from INSTALL kernels, offhand, but I would
assume that you have everything needed to boot, configure a custom kernel,
and build a custom kernel.  (Though if you're on a 486, especially if you
don't have a lot of RAM, the later/more-bloated GCC compilers may take
forever to build a kernel...then there's disk space issues.  (^&)

Also, in the i386 configurations directory, there are 4 sample kernel
configs that have pc0 enabled.  These are presumably actively used (from
their comments and some signs of being up to date).  So, there are
probably compiled kernels based on these floating around.  They may be a
little better for actual use than one of the INSTALL kernels.  (I think
that they all are for 486 machines, and show varying degrees of tuning.)
They are:

  BOAT_ANCHOR
  DISKLESS
  KICKME
  SUN_LAMP

I don't know if these are available for download, but someone might offer
them if they have them.

(I would offer to build one for you, but the office machines don't run
NetBSD.  My home machines aren't on the 'net.  And I'm too spoiled by my
home machines to frivolously build kernels on the NetBSD laptop that I
bring into my office.  (^&  HOWEVER, if no one can more conveniently build
a kernel for you and if you're willing to put up with a few days delay,
and can receive a multi-megabyte MIME attach in your mailbox...I can
eventually build one for you and mail it to you.)


  ``I probably don't know what I'm talking about.'' --rauch@math.rice.edu