Soekris Net6501 install from USB stick newbie issues

["g.lister" <g.lister%nodeunit.com@localhost>]

Hello everyone,

I am trying to get NetBSD installed on a Soekris 6501 with an i386 CPU 
but I am having some issues getting any output from the serial console 
beyond the first boot prompt and selecting option 1 for the install with 
ACPI enabled.

I have not done this before so I am not sure exactly where I am going wrong.

Here is what I have done:
1. I got an i386 image file (NetBSD 6.1.2) which I write to a USB stick 
with dd

        zcat NetBSD-6.1.2-i386-install.img.gz | dd of=/dev/sd0a bs=4096

2. Then I mount the USB and edit boot.cfg putting a consdev=com1 after 
the colon for option 1 leaving the boot netbsd command untouched.

I have also tried editing the /etc/ttys file putting something like
console ".....getty std.19200 sysinstall, but that doesn't help either 
still same thing blank screen after selecting option 1.

I have the feeling that the output is simply not being send to the 
serial com1 port but I am not sure what I need to edit or do to make it 
go there.

I know there is an option to do a PXE boot but I don't have a DHCP 
server and seems a bit more complex to setup than using a USB stick to 
boot and install NetBSD on an HD I have attached to the SATA port.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Kind regards,
George