> 
> >and another one (perhaps interesting also for other ports):
> >the system uses a blue background. i want black background. i know i can 
> >set this with an ANSI sequence (so i got lightgreen text on i386 once).
> >
> >but is there an easier way to do this?
> 
> There's a couple of kernel options that you can set when building
> the kernel which will determine this, I think, but can't remember
> them off the top of my head.

I think you confound it with the options for colorful kernel messages
(default green on black). This is different, because it affects
everything printed on console, not only kernel messages. And it didn't
work very well on our 164LX - I saw patches of blue and black.

In sys/dev/ic/vga.c there are lines

#ifdef __alpha__
        if (!vc->hdl.vh_mono)
                /*
                 * DEC firmware uses a blue background.
                 */
                res = vga_allocattr(scr, WSCOL_WHITE, WSCOL_BLUE,
                    WSATTR_WSCOLORS, attrp);
        else
#endif

Remove them, recompile and reboot, and you''l get normal black
background.

I don't really understand the purpose of this code. Why would just the
alpha port use blue background?

Bye	Pavel