Boot (i386) hangs in absence of video hardware

[Scrap Happy <scrap%GMX.com@localhost>]

Hi,

I've been developing an application for a local non-profit.
I've been asked if it can be deployed on Dell PowerVault 715N's
(they received a donation of several of these).

This is (was) a Windows-ish NAS -- 4 PATA drives in a 1U case
with dual 100Mb ethernet.  (details of probe, follow)

It is designed to run headless.  *No* video hardware or
keyboard available.  No USB.  Intended to be configured by
a serial console (115K 8N1 XON/XOFF).  It has a single
"short" (height) PCI slot that, for all intents and
purposes, is useless (1U case... slot is *sideways*).

I pulled the PATA drive from the development system and
installed it in the machine.  With a laptop attached as
the serial console, I was able to watch the box go through
it's bootstrap.  Then, start the NetBSD boot loader.
The line of "section sizes" (CODE, DATA, etc.) appears
and then this "console" becomes unresponsive.  Some further
disk activity is apparent -- but not enough to suggest a
complete boot.

[in fact, pulling the drive and reinstalling it in a "regular"
PC shows that no additions have been made to /var/log/messages]

I hypothesized that the serial port may be reintitialized
in the NetBSD boot process.  At the very least, it seemed
prudent to disable those entries in /etc/ttys.

No change.

I removed the guts from the box and reassembled them
outside of their case.  This allowed me to install a
real video card in the single PCI slot.  Booting in this
configuration showed all the familiar probe messages, etc.
And, the system appeared to be operational (I didn't do
much more than a cursory check from a remote login
session -- since the "console" was still locked up...
maybe baudrate issues?)

Finding half height video cards to install in these
boxes is not worth the effort -- especially since they
*will* be running headless once deployed!

So, my questions:
- What is (possibly) causing the kernel's boot to hang
 "halfway"?
- how can I coax some other information out of the box
  *without* installing the video card (since installing
  the card makes the problem go away!)?
- what can I do to work-around this problem?

I'm currently looking through kernel options to rebuild
a new kernel *omitting* all dependencies on the display
device(s).  The CONSDEVNAME option suggests it *might*
remove all of these dependencies for me (to remove one
additional source of potential problem, I'll specify the
same 115K baud rate, there).

Does anyone have enough of a *detailed* understanding of
the kernel's interiors to comment as to whether or not
this *is* the issue?  Or, is this a userland issue?
Or, should I be posting this in one of the tech- lists??

I really would NOT like having to move the system forward
to -current until the application itself is "done" (why
change things now if they will only need changing AGAIN?).

In the short term, I need to give the folks here some
idea as to whether or not they should accept the
donation or just pass it along...

Thanks!
--don

-------------8<---------------------8<-------------
[obviously the configuration that *does* boot!  Note
that there may be other hardware present that is not
show -- since the kernel here doesn't include many
other devices]

/netbsd: NetBSD 3.1 (XXX) #0: Mon Sep 21 07:58:55 MST 2009
/netbsd: toor%devel.nowhere.com@localhost:/Source/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/XXX
/netbsd: total memory = 1023 MB
/netbsd: avail memory = 996 MB
/netbsd: BIOS32 rev. 0 found at 0xfdb30
/netbsd: PCI BIOS rev. 2.1 found at 0xfdb51
/netbsd: pcibios: config mechanism [1][x], special cycles [x][x], last bus 1
/netbsd: PCI IRQ Routing Table rev. 1.0 found at 0xf7970, size 128 bytes 
(6 entries)
/netbsd: PCI Interrupt Router at 000:07:0 (VIA Technologies VT82C686A 
PCI-ISA Bridge compatible)
/netbsd: mainbus0 (root)
/netbsd: cpu0 at mainbus0: (uniprocessor)
/netbsd: cpu0: Intel Pentium III (686-class), 997.53 MHz, id 0x68a
/netbsd: cpu0: features 
387fbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR>
/netbsd: cpu0: features 387fbff<PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,PN,MMX>
/netbsd: cpu0: features 387fbff<FXSR,SSE>
/netbsd: cpu0: I-cache 16 KB 32B/line 4-way, D-cache 16 KB 32B/line 4-way
/netbsd: cpu0: L2 cache 256 KB 32B/line 8-way
/netbsd: cpu0: ITLB 32 4 KB entries 4-way, 2 4 MB entries fully associative
/netbsd: cpu0: DTLB 64 4 KB entries 4-way, 8 4 MB entries 4-way
/netbsd: cpu0: serial number XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
/netbsd: cpu0: 8 page colors
/netbsd: pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0: configuration mode 1
/netbsd: pci0: i/o space, memory space enabled, rd/line, rd/mult, wr/inv ok
/netbsd: pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0
/netbsd: pchb0: VIA Technologies VT82C691 (Apollo Pro) Host-PCI (rev. 0xc4)
/netbsd: agp0 at pchb0: aperture at 0xe0000000, size 0x10000000
/netbsd: ppb0 at pci0 dev 1 function 0: VIA Technologies VT82C598 
(Apollo MVP3) CPU-AGP Bridge (rev. 0x00)
/netbsd: pci1 at ppb0 bus 1
/netbsd: pci1: memory space enabled
/netbsd: pcib0 at pci0 dev 7 function 0
/netbsd: pcib0: VIA Technologies VT82C686A PCI-ISA Bridge (rev. 0x40)
/netbsd: VIA Technologies VT82C586A IDE Controller (IDE mass storage, 
interface 0x8a, revision 0x06) at pci0 dev 7 function 1 not conf
igured
/netbsd: VIA Technologies VT82C686A SMBus Controller (miscellaneous 
bridge, revision 0x40) at pci0 dev 7 function 4 not configured
/netbsd: vga0 at pci0 dev 13 function 0: NVIDIA product 0x0221 (rev. 0xa1)
/netbsd: wsdisplay0 at vga0 kbdmux 1: console (80x25,vt100 emulation)
/netbsd: wsmux1: connecting to wsdisplay0
/netbsd: wsdisplay0: screen 1-7 added (80x25, vt100 emulation)
/netbsd: fxp0 at pci0 dev 14 function 0: i82559 Ethernet, rev 8
/netbsd: fxp0: interrupting at irq 5
/netbsd: fxp0: May need receiver lock-up workaround
/netbsd: fxp0: Ethernet address 00:c0:9f:XX:XX:XX
/netbsd: inphy0 at fxp0 phy 1: i82555 10/100 media interface, rev. 4
/netbsd: inphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
/netbsd: fxp1 at pci0 dev 15 function 0: i82559 Ethernet, rev 8
/netbsd: fxp1: interrupting at irq 7
/netbsd: fxp1: May need receiver lock-up workaround
/netbsd: fxp1: Ethernet address 00:c0:9f:XX:XX:XX
/netbsd: inphy1 at fxp1 phy 1: i82555 10/100 media interface, rev. 4
/netbsd: inphy1: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
/netbsd: Promise Technology PDC20265 Ultra/100 IDE controller 
(miscellaneous mass storage, revision 0x02) at pci0 dev 16 function 0 no
t configured
/netbsd: isa0 at pcib0
/netbsd: com0 at isa0 port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4: ns16550a, working fifo
/netbsd: pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60-0x64
/netbsd: pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot)
/netbsd: pckbc0: using irq 1 for kbd slot
/netbsd: wskbd0 at pckbd0: console keyboard, using wsdisplay0
/netbsd: wdc0 at isa0 port 0x1f0-0x1f7 irq 14
/netbsd: atabus0 at wdc0 channel 0
/netbsd: pcppi0 at isa0 port 0x61
/netbsd: midi0 at pcppi0: PC speaker
/netbsd: spkr0 at pcppi0
/netbsd: sysbeep0 at pcppi0
/netbsd: isapnp0 at isa0 port 0x279: ISA Plug 'n Play device support
/netbsd: npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0-0xff: using exception 16
/netbsd: isapnp0: no ISA Plug 'n Play devices found
/netbsd: apm0 at mainbus0: Power Management spec V1.2
/netbsd: apm0: A/C state: on
/netbsd: apm0: battery charge state: no battery
/netbsd: Kernelized RAIDframe activated
/netbsd: wd0 at atabus0 drive 0: <WDC WD1600JB-00GVC0>
/netbsd: wd0: drive supports 16-sector PIO transfers, LBA48 addressing
/netbsd: wd0: 149 GB, 310101 cyl, 16 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 
312581808 sectors
/netbsd: wd0: drive supports PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 5 
(Ultra/100)
/netbsd: boot device: wd0
/netbsd: root on wd0a dumps on wd0b
/netbsd: root file system type: ffs