I happened to me before on FreeBSD/Alpha system. What I did is in
/etc/ttys change this line:

ttyd0 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   dialup  off secure

to

ttyd0   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   vt220   on secure

this will fix it. I hope it's the same on NetBSD

HTH

pe'


------------------------------
UNIX System Admin.
Distributed Computing Services
Lake Superior State University
650 W. Easterday Ave.
Sault Ste. Marie. MI
49783 USA.
------------------------------

On Tue, 15 Jun 1999, Edwin Foo wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I've been trying to get my alpha to boot using a serial console without much
> success lately. The SRM console talks to the serial port fine, but as soon
> as I issue the "boot dka0" command the kernel goes off and stops emitting
> output (presumably expecting a VGA card). The box pings fine afterwards, but
> I have no means of logging in remotely since I have yet to make any accounts
> on it, and so I've got this silly chicken-and-egg problem here. =) How can I
> force the kernel to boot single user and output to the serial port instead
> of looking for a VGA card? There is currently no VGA card in the system at
> all.
> 
> thanks,
> Edwin
>