Hello,

> I had a problem with my old HD in my sparcbook and it no longer boots.
> I figured this was as good a time as any to install NetBSD on it, so
> I went and grabbed the latest stuff Michael posted to his area on
> ftp.netbsd.org and got it to install.

All you need (including X) is in -current now, no need to use the old stuff
from ftp - just grab a recent snapshot from releng and build your own kernel,
I'm pretty sure your opinion about usefulness of certain drivers differs from
mine ;)

> Here's where things get a little goofy, I can boot it up fine, log in
> once, but when I log out and back in, I get:
> 
> "getty respawning too quickly on /dev/console, sleeping"

You need to change /etc/ttys a bit - put gettys on /dev/ttyE*, don't put one
on /dev/console if you're using a wscons kernel ( which is what you want after
all )
Make sure the ttyE* entries exist. 

Something like this:
#console        "/usr/libexec/getty suncons"    sun-ss5 on secure
ttyE0   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   xterm-color     on  secure
ttyE1   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   xterm-color     on  secure
ttyE2   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   xterm-color     on  secure
ttyE3   "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600"   xterm-color     on  secure

And set wscons=yes in your rc.conf to get a handful virtual consoles
( switch with Alt-F1...Fn )
In case you're wondering about the terminal type - vt220 would be right
but it implies 80x24 while the sparcbook console may be bigger which may
give funny effects ( like programs not using the full screen when they 
should ) - xterm-color can cope with that.

> (btw, this does feel much faster than Solaris 2.6 did)

Yeah, using the blitter on the console can cause this kind of effects ;)

have fun
Michael