> Without RASTERCONSOLE, I get to where I believe it wants to load init, but 
> the system then freezes hard, such that I have to power cycle it. (stop-a
> doesn't do anything in this situation.)

Just chiming in to note that I saw the same thing on my SparcClassic/cgthree
with a RASTERCONSOLE-enabled kernel. I also noticed video glitches
appearing on the screen continuously, as if the machine was in a tight
loop accessing the framebuffer memory...

I took the RASTERCONSOLE option out and obtained a stable system again.

-pk