> just like that, without printing the register dump? this is really weird,
> because whenever the monitor is returned to or entered from e.g. a halt,
> it prints out the KN05, rev number, and registers... this looks like

Yep, just like that, without anything being printed. Except the "^C", which
suggests I pressed control C, which I did not. The same thing happens when I'm
at the physical or the serial console. While using the serial console I tried
both with the keyboard plugged in and without.

> somewhere the kernel transferred control quietly to the wrong place!
> you might try testing your memory... at the chevron, i think just test mem
> and then go get lunch. it's a majorly intensive test.

Did that, everything tests fine. I also tried booting the box with only one of
the three memory modules inside, with the same effect.

I found two postings to this list from other people with *exactly* the same
problem on a 5000/240. For the heck of it, I tried booting OpenBSD 2.6 on the
thing, which is probably jquite simmilar to an early NetBSD, it stops in
exactly the same way.

The thing that bothers me most is, that I also found posts (and received
replies to this post) of people successfully using NetBSD on a 5000/240.