I have set up a system for someone else, based on a VIA chipset
"Shuttle-X" motherboard.  This is running NetBSD 2.0_Beta.  Had
I known that the RC1 was going to be out when it was, I would have
held off another day or so for RC1.  But I don't expect that that
will make a huge difference.

If it is likely that updating to 2.0rc1 will fix a problem, I can
do that.  Otherwise, I was going to stick to the beta version
until 2.0 (proper) was released.

Mostly it works fairly nicely.  Two things bother me for which I have
no immediate clues about proceeding:

 * XMMS sometimes works, sometimes not.  Yes, this is pkgsrc stuff.
   And, horrors, KDE is also in the mix.  Still, it may be
   something that other (i386?) users have comment upon.  Since
   KDE3 does not build on my AMD64 I cannot even partially
   investigate this.

   This appears to mostly be a conflict with KDE.  However the first
   time that we ran XMMS, it played music as expected.  Then it
   stopped working, and if told to use Sun/BSD style audio, it
   actually dumps core.  If using OSS audio, it says that it cannot
   open the audio.

   However, the KDE "juK" music-playing program is able to read and
   play the files correctly, even immediately after XMMS has failed.
   So the sound output is okay.

   It seems to be a KDE conflict (a Konflict?  (^&) but if so, why
   was it able to play for a little while, one time?  It was going
   fine until I brought up the OpenGL 3D "analyzer", closed it, and
   then brought it back up for some reason.  It crashed XMMS the
   before opening the analyzer window.

   From a practical point of view, juK is more than adequate for
   the user, but I'm ticked off that XMMS is acting so mysteriously.
   Any input?

   There are no audio device errors in dmesg, and exiting KDE (or
   even rebooting the whole system) does not clear it, so it's not
   some errant process lying around with an open file descriptor.

 * The computer has 4 USB ports on two hubs.  I initially had the
   keyboard plugged into a front port, but when I added the mouse,
   it killed the keyboard.  So I migrated both to the back.

   I also have attached a USB->printer adaptor.  After printing a
   single sample data file, it locks up ulpt0 so that I cannot
   print further.  (The data file was plain ASCII text.  The printer
   is an HP 1100 Laserjet, one of a very few models that HP made
   with the "mini Centronics" connectors.  This new computer does
   not have a parallel port, so we need to go through the USB
   port, or else reconnect it to an older Evil Empire machine.)

   Trying to print a second file gives a message something like
   "/dev/ulpt0 in use" (sorry, this is from memory).

   I don't know if it's the printer doing something weird
   on disconnect, the USB-=>printer adapter, or if it's more
   of the previous weirdness with the second USB hub.  (The
   two ports on back are in use for mouse and keyboard.)

   Should I just get an external USB hub for the mouse and
   keyboard and printer?  (I've never needed, or used, an
   external hub with NetBSD.)

Sorry, I can't give a dmesg.  I don't have the machine on-hand
and did not think to send a dmesg to myself when I was able to
do so yesterday.


-- 
  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about."  http://www.olib.org/~rkr/