Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
>>
>>The system exits and runs the /etc/rc script and then drops to a login prompt.
>>The login prompt, however does not say "login:". The string seems to be corru
>>pted because there is an 'l', 'o', then a t-like character, 'i', then a sigma 
>>(or rounded e character), followed by a colon and then an accented 'a'.
>>
>>When I enter the username and press ENTER, it echoes the username, followed by
>>an accented 'i'. The cariage return produces a linefeed only, so the "Passwor
>>d:" prompt (which displays normally otherwise) is below the accented 'i' after
>>the username. After entering the password,  I am given the banner and then th
>>e login prompt.
>>
>>This looks like the work of an ill-initialized terminal. I'm guessing that it 
>>is the 'ttyflags -a' call in /etc/rc.d/ttys file.
> 
> 
> Yes -- almost certainly a parity issue on ttyoutput.
... 
> You may want to retain the rc.d structure; it gives you a lot of 
> flexibility.
> 
If I were being practical, I would do just that. But I am on a quest to learn, and in doing so I tend to be a bit eccentric.

Anyways, if I drag the whole rc.d structure in, wouldn't I have to bring along all the required binaries as well? 

My goal for this whole excercise is to learn about the components of NetBSD and put together a document that shows you how to make an absolute minimal NetBSD. This is mainly targeted at embedded developers who would want a full featured OS without any more code than is absolutely needed.

Anyways, it looks like the 'ttyflags -a' wasn't enough. I see there is a /etc/rc.d/wscons file that runs wsconscfg. However it is a bit hard to follow as to what it is doing because many of the parameters look to be passed in on the command line. All I want to do is initialize my console (on an i386). Looking through the man page for wsconscfg was little help either, since I do not understand the whole wscons system (ungh! more reading!).

I'm going to try adding a 'wsconscfg -t 80x25 -e vt100 0' to my startup script to see if that helps.

--
Brian