At 9:41 AM -0500 12/10/01, Gregory Smith wrote:
>	I have a rev. a ibook on which the screen has died (completely).
>The machine's got a pretty good processor in it compared to what I
>normally use (an old alpha), and I'd like to try to get NetBSD working on
>it. Here are the problems:
>1) no serial ports
>2) how to force OF to serial console, and
>3) how to force netbsd to serial console
>
>	I read on this list a long time ago that someone was able to get a
>serial console on a USB-only machine like this iBook using a USB-serial
>adapter, so I may be able to get past 1 and 2, and I'm sure 3 is just a
>matter of passing in the correct arguments to the kernel, or at very
>worst, compiling one specially for serial console (which I could
>cross-compile, yuck).
>	Any experiences or useful information on this matter would be
>appreciated, I'm hesitant to buy a serial adapter unless I have a good
>chance of getting it working. Thanks

As another option have you considered putting a VGA monitor on the 
thing?  If you can get video mirroring going maybe you don't need the 
screen?  Of course if the problem is the graphics electronics you 
still loose.
-- 
The opinions expressed in this message are mine,
not those of Caltech, JPL, NASA, or the US Government.
Henry.B.Hotz@jpl.nasa.gov, or hbhotz@oxy.edu