>>
Hello,

>> Huh? Somehow I don't understand you... put what back into what?
>
> i need the firmware that does text mode.  where do i find that, and 
> how do i
> get it into the video card with NetBSD?
I don't have such a firmware image as I said before. Riccardo 
apparently has one.
And you get it into the card using the Matrox flash utility.

> on the other hand, my neighbor has an XP box, i might be able to talk 
> him into
> letting my get the right flash into the card on that thing.
No need to do that, the Matrox flasher works on almost any halfway 
recent MacOS ( definitely 8.5, and almost certainly on earlier versions 
too )

have fun
Michael