Subject: garbled console/lockup
To: 'port-alpha@netbsd.org' <port-alpha@netbsd.org>
From: Edwin Foo <efoo@crl.dec.com>
List: port-alpha
Date: 05/23/1999 10:10:40
Hi,

I installed NetBSD/alpha on a AlphaPC164SX yesterday. The installation
seemed to go fine except that I noticed strange console garbage at times. It
seems most aggravated when I am using more/less, etc.

Anyways, it was late, so I went to bed. This morning, I logged in as root to
take a look around, and while I was 'less'ing /var/log/messages, the screen
started getting garbled again. I suppose it can be best described as a
random transposition/substitution of characters with other characters on
that line or surrounding lines. After back-paging through 3-4 screens, the
machine just locked up. I mean locked as in no response to keyboard input,
ping, telnet, etc. A hard reset restored it to working order.

I remember hearing about how wscons has been changed significantly lately. I
don't see any open PR reports with these symptoms, but I wonder if it could
be my hardware. Has anyone else seen this?

-Edwin