[ Apologies for being so unresponsive... Debugging wscons code mostly
  makes my Hades go up and down like a jojo ;-) ]

The glue code for other fs-types is tricky related to a 3rd stage boot:
    - You need ffs to read /boot (or at least an fs supported by stage 2)
    - the 2nd level boot is stored in the bootblock space of an ffs filesytem

I like your attempts on the keystroke and printf improvements. On my todo
list was also:
   - booting compressed kernels (another point supported by x86).
     I can no longer put the 'standard' BOOT & BOOTX kernels on 720KB
     boot floppies for the 1.4 release...
   - Check if we can get away with install filesystems > 1MB, so we can try
     to get sysinst running.

So if you are bored ;-)

Happy New Year!

Leo.