On Thursday, March 3, 2005, Alex Pelts <alexp@broadcom.com> wrote:

> I would venture to guess that lcd driver in not compiled in to the
> kernel by default, or not present in the stock kernel at all.

So it seems.

> I have seen mentioning of the driver being in the 1.6.2 tree then in 2.0
> tree. Personally I am running 1.6.2 which I upgraded from 1.6.1. In both
> cases I had to apply lcd patch. You can get it from
> http://only.mawhrin.net/~cdi/netbsd/cobalt/hd44780.diff.gz if it is
> still there. If not I can post it in this ml.

I found the link to the patch on Team Rushmere's Teraqube page. They
also describe how to patch the kernel (1.6.1) config with the driver
for the LCD panel, but I was not sure whether this patch is still
required for NetBSD 2.0.

> LCD is usefull only in the beginning if at all. If you have serial
> console it would be much more usefull than lcd. Of course it is nice to
> have complete working qube. I am still looking at how to controll these
> green leds on the front. I would like to turn them off at night :).
> Should be some bit somewhere. I know it is possible because bios does it.

A bizarre but interesting idea :-)

> By the way I made 1.6.2 recovery cd using original recovery cd and
> replacing distribution files. It should work but I have not had a chance
> to test it. If anyone interested drop me an email and I will publish the
> torrent of it.

I would like to test it. The hard disk currently installed inside my
Qube is a little noisy, and I have another one (hopefully more quiet)
that could act as a test drive.

Btw: Does anybody know anything about the status of a 2.0 recovery cd?

> In my opinion qube is still an excellent toy computer although it is
> getting old fast :(. Mac mini is the replacement which could more useful.

Maybe today I would rather buy a Mac Mini. But I also like older computers
that are still working and can be used for learning purposes or the
like. When the Qube II arrived on the market, it was too expensive for
me (and I was too young to see any use in it ;-) ). Today the Qube
came down to prices that I can afford. It's like driving an old car :)

-- 
Regards
Carsten