On Tue, 29 Apr 1997 16:39:45 -0400 
 Ken Hornstein <kenh@cmf.nrl.navy.mil> wrote:

 > _However_ .... It seems to me that it's possible to use the framebuffer
 > as a glass tty after the system is up and running.  I started a getty
 > on ttyE0, and I get a login prompt, but it doesn't respond to any
 > keyboard input (I hear clicks from the keyboard, but nothing appears on
 > the screen).

...there is a driver for the framebuffer, but there is no support
for the keyboard on the TurboChannel systems, yet.

I personally think something like how the sun3 zs driver works (altered
for wscons) is more or less the Right Thing.  It would be nice to have
the Alpha port use the MI z8530sc driver.  Then the infrastructure for
it is all there.

 > I'm willing to believe that this is due to the incredibly ancient firmware
 > that this machine has (which I am in the process of getting upgraded).

...nope, see above... it's the kernel :-)

 > Another question: anyone got X running on this beast?  I have a PMAG-B
 > frame buffer, which _is_ supported by X11R6.3, so there's probably a
 > chance of getting it working (dunno if the keyboard will work, though :-) ).

...X does not yet work under NetBSD/alpha on that type of machine.
Although, once you get the keyboard working, it might not be that hard
to add support for the PMAG-B to the NetBSD/alpha X server.. :-)

 > Oh, one other thing: anyone else get this?  (Also using the latest snapshot):
 > 
 > % ifconfig le0 xx.xx.xx.xx
 > pid 129 (ifconfig): unaligned access: va=0x12013d352 pc=0x120018f04 ra=0x120018f

I haven't yet, but I'm just rebuilding the world on my DEC 3000/400, so
I'm still running the older ifconfig(8).

Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center                               Home: 408.866.1912
NAS: M/S 258-6                                          Work: 415.604.0935
Moffett Field, CA 94035                                Pager: 415.428.6939