I was pleased to hear it's so easy to use the framebuffer in a 3000 
now, so I tried it but failed...

I compiled a kernel using 1.6's standard TCWSCONS configuration file 
on my 3000/400 and booted from it:

>>>  b dka200
INIT-S-CPU...
INIT-S-RESET_TC...
INIT-S-ASIC...
INIT-S-MEM...
INIT-S-NVR...
INIT-S-SCC...
INIT-S-NI...
INIT-S-SCSI...
INIT-S-ISDN...
INIT-S-TC1...
AUDIT_BOOT_STARTS ...
AUDIT_CHECKSUM_GOOD
AUDIT_LOAD_BEGINS
AUDIT_LOAD_DONE

NetBSD/alpha 1.6 FFS Primary Bootstrap
Jumping to entry point...

NetBSD/alpha 1.6 Secondary Bootstrap. Revision 1.13
(autobuild@cs20.apochromatic.org. Sun Sep  8 11:54:59 UTC 2002)

VMS PAL rev: 0x100010538
OSF PAL rev: 0x2012d
Switch to OSF PAL code succeeded.

Boot flags: A
2752200+293808 [171696+94821]=0x328f50

Entering netbsd at 0xfffffc0000301290...
consinit: Unable to init console on keyboard and TURBOchannel slot 0x2.
Using serial console.

The remaining boot messages then appeared on the serial console. 
However, it wasn't possible to log in from the console--typing on its 
keyboard produced no effect (as is to be expected I suppose since 
switch S3 on the rear panel was up).

The label on the framebuffer (visible from the back of the machine) 
says PMAG-E  PXG and the relevant line from dmesg is:

pxg (3D Graphics (PXG LM-3DA)) at tc0 slot 4 offset 0x0 not configured

I noticed when browsing through /usr/src/sys/arch/alpha/conf/TCWSCONS 
that it's necessary to disable kernel security for X to run on this 
card:

# Disable kernel security.  Needed for X on a px or pxg.
#options        INSECURE

which I didn't uncomment, but that wouldn't have been the reason for 
my failure since the card wasn't even configure at bootup, would it? 
Could someone suggest a solution?

When my 3000/400 was running OSF/1 it was possible to use the 
Alternate Console/Printer port for console I/O and the machine's own 
keyboard, mouse and monitor for X sessions.  Can that be done with 
NetBSD 1.6 too?

By the way, these two lines are commented out in 
/usr/src/sys/arch/alpha/conf/TCWSCONS but not in 
/usr/src/sys/arch/alpha/conf/GENERIC

pseudo-device  raid            4       # RAIDframe disk driver
options        RAID_AUTOCONFIG         # auto-configuration of RAID components

presumably it's OK to uncomment them in TCWSCONS?


Ray