>        (1) set up the serial port to actually work.  a standard
>            null-modem cable should do the trick, if you're connecting
>            to another computer.  (the two serial ports on the back of
>            AlphaStations are the same as those on a PC...  I've never
>            seen and AXPpci.  If you're having problems, one of those
>            little boxes with an LED that tells you the state of each
>            rs232 line could be invaluable.

Am connecting to a SPARC.  Bought new cables and null modem.  Tried with and
without the null modem.  Didn't work.  Will search the lab for one of thos
little boxes.

>        (2) try removing everything from the serial ports, plugging in
>            the keyboard, etc.  this might get you _some_ sort of SRM
>            console prompt on the monitor.  (I seem to remember
>            something like this...  I'm probably wrong.  8-)

Nothing.

>        (3) There may (should?) be a jumper on your motherboard to
>            reset your console settings to the default, as a last
>            resort.

Nothing -- see note to John.


>with that hardware, you shouldn't _need_ to use a serial console
>(though it could be useful for debugging...)>

As initial note indicated, I had tried to boot without the serial console but it
didn't work.  Immediately after printing "jumping to bootstrap code", the
CPU had some instruction failure and halted.

>is the DE-205 ethernet the PCI board?  or is it an ISA, LANCE-based
>board?  (i dunno the name of the 21030-based PCI board...  8-)
>(If it's the ISA LANCE board, NetBSD/Alpha won't support it, i don't
>think...  never tried to make it work.)

ISA board.

Thanks for the ideas.
/tdm