Re: Amiga screen modes in wscons

[Carlos Milán Figueredo <cmilanf%hispamsx.org@localhost>]

> From: David Brownlee <abs%absd.org@localhost>
> Sent: Sunday, November 12, 2023 12:52

> If NetBSD on the amiga is set to come up to multi-user with networking
> then you could automate it from the build box
> - Run ssh-keygen on the build box, and add the generate pub key into
> /root/.ssh/authorized_keys on the amiga
> - Create a script on the build box which builds a test kernel, then
> runs ssh $amiga cp -p /netbsd /onetbsd; scp netbsd $amiga:/; ssh
> $amiga reboot (onetbsd so can recover manually from a kernel which
> locks up)

I already have key authentication in the Amiga, so yeah, automating that would save a great deal of time, leaving the whole process unattended :)

> If NetBSD on the amiga is set to come up in single user, then you
> should be able to blind type ENTER reboot ENTER :)

Yeah, but in this case is multi-user and with networking :)

> OK, though those are currently compile time options, so we would need
> to make them runtime selectable first - possibly by defining a struct
> to hold the affected values, and then making a sysctl machdep option
> to switch between them (there may also be some untangling to ensure
> they could usefully be adjusted at runtime without everything breaking
> around them :) Extending that to allow a bootloader option should then
> be "not much work"

Glad to hear about that. I wanted to point something else I forgot to comment and has bothered me a bit about AGA support in NetBSD console, though I am not the one suffering for it. As far as I understood, -A switch will enable WSCONS AGA support and force DblPAL or DblNTSC-like screenmodes, meaning 31kHz. What would happen if I am an Amiga 1200/4000 user with a monitor that doesn't handle 31kHz, like the Commodore 1084s? I wouldn't be able to use the -A parameter and hence lose AGA support.

Again, it's not my case and I don't know how many users out there could be facing this; but it is not a rare configuration.

> It should not be *too* difficult to expose some values under sysctl
> machdep, caveats similar to the GRF_ options applying...

That would be very interesting. I will keep making test automating the kernel build and deployment in the Amiga with your suggestions. Thanks!

Regards,
Carlos

Carlos Milán Figueredo | HispaMSX System Operator | http://www.hispamsx.org | telnet://bbs.hispamsx.org | https://calnus.com