I know everyone must be bored with my installation fumbles
but...
I thought I had it all installed and everything.
got all my filesystems straight, right stuff in right place.

Booted system, it went thru normal boot process and booted /netbsd.
Told me all about drives and devices and mem.
All of this came out on my normally connected console port.
I believe it is and has been set for 8n1.
got the boot complete indications: 
end of the status info.
let it sit for a bit (20 minutes).
set up the terminal to be 7e1 and hit enter.
nothing on screen from vaxen.
did this four times - rebooting each time to ensure I did not miss a message
and everything was fine as far as messages and stuff but no indicator
on the screen - no login prompt, no nuthin!
does this indicate anything to anyone??
thanks
bob