> 
> Using the standard 1.2 release of NetBSD on an SE/30 with the
> later monochrome Xserver, everything seems to work.
> 
> However, when I log in as other than root, and attempt to
> run xconsole, it says it can't open console.
> 
> What's going on?  I tried making xconsole set uid root
> and set gid wheel.  I tried making /dev/console a=rw.
> 
> None of those worked.  However, if I su to root and then
> launch it, it works fine.
> 
> Any ideas how to get xconsole to talk to the console
> when it's not running as root?

This should be in the FAQ, but I couldn't find it.

You need to compile a console with "options UCONSOLE" for a non-root
user to be able to re-direct the console output.

So you can live with needing to be root, or compile your own kernel.
It's a security feature which can only be configured at compilation.

Take care,

Bill