Re: Newbie questions

[David Brownlee <abs%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Mon, 25 May 1998, Lars Hecking wrote:

>  1) Is there any possibility to tell the kernel which video mode
>     to boot into? I have to take out my EGS Spectrum to run NetBSD
>     because the default video mode is too much for the monitor
>     (38k SVGA).
> 
        Can't help on this one (I run other NetBSD ports)

>  2) (Yes, this has been asked before, but I couldn't find the answer ;)
>     Are there virtual consoles a la Linux?
>  
        As far as I know only the i386 port has virtual consoles.
        All ports can run 'screen' (available in the packages collection),
        which gives largely similar functionality. People are working on
        'wscons' which will be a machine independent console driver - with
        luck that should support virtual consoles, allowing all NetBSD
        ports to use them. wscons is still very much work in progress, so 
        do not expect it anytime soon though.

>  3) When I try to run startx as a non-root user, I get:
>     OsVendorInit: can't open keyboard: Permission denied
>     Fatal server error:
>     no screens found
>     How can I fix this? (is there an equivalent to truss or strace?)
> 
        NetBSD has ktrace & kdump. ktrace dumps the system call
        information to ktrace.out, kdump decodes the output file.
        My guess is you'll want to chmod the keyboard device, or use
        xdm. Personally I use xdm :)
        
>  4) Tape drive trouble. I have a Sun tape drive, and a tape written
>     on a SunOS machine (/dev/rst8). It is correctly recognised as
>     st0 at scsibus0 targ 4 lun 0: <ARCHIVE, VIPER 150  21351, -004> SCSI1 
> 1/sequential removable
>     However, when I try to access the tape, it doesn't work:
> 
> # mt status
> st0(ahsc0:4:0):  Check Condition on opcode 0x15
>     SENSE KEY:  Illegal Request
>      ASC/ASCQ:  No Additional Sense Information
> 
> st0(ahsc0:4:0):  Check Condition on opcode 0x15
>     SENSE KEY:  Illegal Request
>      ASC/ASCQ:  No Additional Sense Information
> 
> st0: cannot set selected mode
> May 24 18:35:25  /netbsd: st0(ahsc0:4:0): Check Condition on opcode 0x15
> SCSI tape drive, residual=0
> ds=0
> May 24 18:35:25  /netbsd:     SENSE KEY:  Illegal Request
> er=0
> blocksize: 0 (0, 0, 0, 0)
> May 24 18:35:25  /netbsd:      ASC/ASCQ:  No Additional Sense Information
> density: 0 (0, 0, 0, 0)
> May 24 18:35:25  /netbsd:
> May 24 18:35:26  /netbsd: st0(ahsc0:4:0): Check Condition on opcode 0x15
> May 24 18:35:26  /netbsd:     SENSE KEY:  Illegal Request
> May 24 18:35:26  /netbsd:      ASC/ASCQ:  No Additional Sense Information
> May 24 18:35:26  /netbsd:
> May 24 18:35:26  /netbsd: st0: cannot set selected mode
> 
>     Needless to say, the tape works fine with Linux and AmigaOS.
>     Should I use a different device (instead of DEFTAPE)?
> 
        Will a rewind work - 'mt rewind'? (I've only used tapes under
        NetBSD/i386 and NetBSD/sun3 and they've been ok).

>  5) Cannot mount Linux partitions:
>     mount_ext2fs /dev/sd1i /mnt/lnxlocal
>     Operation not supported by device
> 
        Have you 'file-system     EXT2FS' in your kernel config?

> Please do not Cc: me on list replies.

        OK...

                David/absolute

         -=-  "Just adding to the wrinkles on his deathly frown"  -=-