Excerpts from netbsd: 24-Nov-97 how to indicate no console? Michael
Richardson@sande (892)

> in arch/i386/i386/machdep.c, line 1830, it says:
> 
> 	panic("invalid console device %s", consinfo->devname);
> 
>   Problem: there is no console, so how does the user see this?

He can't :-(
That's rather a "comment only" command.
(The problem is already listed in the BUGS section of console(4i386).)

> 	while(1) {
> 	  DELAY(1000000L);
> 	  outb(PITAUX_PORT, inb(PITAUX_PORT) | PIT_SPKRDATA);
> 	  DELAY(100000L);
> 	  outb(PITAUX_PORT, inb(PITAUX_PORT) & ~PITSPKRDATA);
> 	}

How about morse output?

OK, seriously, it's a reasonable idea.
Perhaps the meaning of the console specification in the config file
should be changed to "use this if the bootloader's console does
not work", and try your fixed pccnattach() as last. The problem
is that the *cnattach() don't check much and don't return
error codes yet.
And I'm not sure if it is save to use DELAY() here.

I don't think this must be done before 1.3. There is only
a problem if there is something seriously misconfigured,
and people playing with console settings typically "know
what they are doing".

best regards
Matthias