[SPARCbook] NetBSD quirks / Re: No messages

[Helena Soderholm]

>> I haven't seen any for far, far longer than that. :)  I'm actually
>> thinking of getting rid of some of my sparcbooks...

Dont you feel a bit sad doing that :-)  

Actually I was just about to post a message, so here goes.

I'm playing around with NetBSD 1.5.2 on the Sparcbook 3GX. The install
works fine and in X there seem to be no trouble so far. However something
odd seems to go on in console mode.
I had several chrashes and reboots when I was running in console mode, and
strange error messages when i hit some keys.

I also get this really large and ugly font that is much larger than the
default font one gets in open boot mode for instance (ok prompt). This problem seems like it may
be Sparcbook specific. Is this a known bug? Has anyone else seen this? Can I change the
setup somehow to get rid of this large font. (i dont know my way around
BSD so well yet, sorry if this is a FAQ) It is rather inconvenient because
the screen is so small and all output gets messy.

The console bug seem to affect vi, it was behaving really strangely in
console mode. As I was trying to edit the .xinitrc file to use olvwm it was most frustrating. I
ended up starting twm just to be able to edit the file in x mode.

Otherwise NetBSD seem nice. I wanted it to be able to run the Eagle CAD
pcb cad package, but it appears you cant run this package without an x86
processor, arrgh.. (it runs linux binarys in binary emulation mode). 
The package system is really useful and convenient though. Makes it really
easy to try out programs of all kinds with minimal fuss.

Sadly I have concluded, like most of you I guess, that I need a more
modern x86 laptop for work related programming with both Linux and Windows
(and x86 binaries, see above). However I thinkI will keep my Sparcbook for the nostalgia and use it together with my
other computers for the things it does well. One gets about $200
for it now or maybe a bit more with all the extras, it doesnt seem worth 
selling it. Its better to keep it as an old but slightly tired friend :-)

Peter