> > The NetBSD kernel only uses the video card for a text console.
> > I'm not sure that our ``vga'' support is really VGA-specific; I
> > assumed that it worked with pretty much any old PC video hardware
> > to produce a text display.
> 
> Well, quoting GENERIC:
> 
> wsdisplay*      at vga? console ?
> wsdisplay*      at pcdisplay? console ?
> ...
> vga0            at isa?
> vga*            at pci? dev ? function ?
> pcdisplay0      at isa?                 # CGA, MDA, EGA, HGA
> ...
> 
> Which seems to indicate that the ``vga'' support is really VGA-

That's a fair deduction.  (^&


> > You might still get rid of this support if you were going to run
> > the machine headless (serial console, or just login via a network
> > connection).  But if you're going to hook up a keyboard and
> > monitor to the thing, I don't think that you want to get rid of
> > the VGA stuff.
> 
> Unfortunately some old BIOSes have the annoying property that they
> refuse to boot without something looking like a keyboard attached;
> as witnessed by the infamous "No Keyboard, press F2 to continue"
> error message (or variants thereof).  Your mileage may wary.

Yes, I suppose.  (I also have a somewhat newer machine that won't boot
without a video card in it---and there's no BIOS option to override that
in that machine, that I could ever find.)  Still, that doesn't mean that
you have to have a bulky monitor attached.  And as far as the kernel is
concerned, you might get away with no _support_ for any of these.

Can you eliminate console support from NetBSD just via configuration?  Or
would it balk at config- (or compile-)time?


  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about." --rauch@eecs.ukans.edu