At 2:52 PM +0200 7/26/01, Bruno Barwise wrote:

:)But there was absolutely no way of getting the ppc to default to the screen
:)to output.  Therefore i tried booting to a serial console.  I used Zterm
:)from a 4400, but it crashed!!!  There was a never ending stream of  "C^c"
:)until the 4400 crashed..... AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH.  I have no idea what is
:)going on.

Not sure about the crash, but you need to type, at the OF prompt:
dev / ls
and look for anything that might be your video card.  Remember, with a
9600, there is no built-in video, so your video card may be at a strange
address, or a different vendor than the rest of the 9600 owners.

Once you find something that looks like it, then use that string as your
output-device.  For example:
/chaos@hexaddress
  /control@hexaddress

is how it's printed from my PowerMac 7300.  Thus I use:
setenv output-device /chaos/control
or
setenv output-device /chaos@hexaddress/control@hexaddress

:)Another thing i wanted to know was if I boot using a serial console to
:)install netBSD, would I then have to use a serial console every time i want
:)to use netBSD?  the problem is that the 4400 is used by my sister o type her
:)letters and so on, so if i keep it she might not be too pleased..... :-(

No, the console is controlled by Open Firmware, not the kernel.  This means
you can (once you know how to use the screen) switch between the two, and
the kernel would not know the difference.

In any case, none of this should matter to your sister, since the MacOS ROM
on your model always uses the screen (it's a lot smarter than Open
Firmware).

Good luck,
  -- MW