You're probably getting messages sent to /dev/console.  Try running
xconsole to redirect those messages.  And Yes, I think this is in a FAQ
somewhere, but I can for the life of me remember just where  :)

On Sun, 19 Apr 1998, Greg Dunn wrote:

> Still plugging away with the network setup stuff...   I was connecting via
> telnet to the NetBSD machine (so I didn't have to keep running across the
> room :)  and on the occasions where I get a login failure the error
> messages are clobbering the screen on my X display at the NetBSD machine.
> 
> I routinely start X with "startx &>/dev/null" which gets rid of most of the
> glitches, but apparently somebody isn't playing fair with their diagnostic
> output...  inetd perhaps?  Changing /etc/syslog.conf to redirect output and
> trying the "-C" option on my xterm also failed to stem the flow.  Anyway, I
> thought this had already been addressed in the 1.3 distribution, but maybe
> not...
> 
> The NetBSD machine:
> 
> Mac IIci
> 20MB RAM
> Toby video
> Asante MacCon Ethernet card
> 1GB hard drive partitioned 80MB HFS, 40MB swap, 100MB root, 750MB usr
> NetBSD 1.3 w/SLOTMAN-MRG-SBC kernel#220
> 
> 
> --
> | Greg Dunn                       |  I don't like to smile unless    |
> | gregdunn@indy.net               |  I have a reason.                |
> | GregDunn@aol.com                |                  Daria           |
> | http://members.aol.com/gregdunn |                                  |
> 
> 
> 

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