>If you're using pcvt, and you don't run X explicitly on vt0, then you
>should be able to simply switch VTs to get to the debugger.  Perhaps
>it doesn't switch modes correctly in DDB; I don't know.

This doesn't work.  I run X on vt1 as me, and generally have a root
shell open on vt0 for just general maintenance purposes (in text mode,
of course).  My (total guesswork) impression of the situation is: when
the machine crashes, the keyboard is still in whatever mode X puts it
in, and is grabbed by the X server process, and DDB has no way of
understanding the keyboard output, so it doesn't know what CTRL-ALT-F1
means, in that mode.

Whatever it is, the machine won't switch when it's hung under X.

>Doing this reliably requires knowing many details about the video
>hardware, which would rather defeat the point of pccons.  (As it stands
>now, pccons runs on virtually any PC video adapter.)  I see no reason
>pcvt can't do it, though.

I understand this, if you wanted to get it back to a pre-determined
state.  But isn't there a most basic text video mode that the card
could be prodded into, and at the same time, reset the keyboard to a
known state?  Just curious...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Michael L. VanLoon     michaelv@HeadCandy.com     michaelv@iastate.edu
  Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x for PC/Mac/Amiga/etc.
     Working NetBSD ports: 386+PC, Mac, Amiga, HP300, Sun3, Sun4c, PC532
               In progress: DEC pmax (MIPS R2k/3k), VAX, Sun4m
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