>        Just a random thought - but would it be possible for machines
>        without supported framebuffers to continue to use the prom for
>        output?  I would guess it would be slow as hell, and even run
>        into problems with interrupts being blocked for too long while
>        the prom scrolls the console, but it would be something for those
>        without supported hardware...


Its _slower_ than hell. You really dont want to do this.  plus it
means ignoring all the memory the PROM has marked as its own.  Plus (a
killer) some older PROM revisions dont mark all the memory they use.
At least thats what I found with the V-kernel.

Not only do you not get X, the ultimate, final straw is that the PROM
screen emulation dosent do cursor addressing.  So you cannot even run
sysinst.  It's just not worth it.