In message <199801040449.EAA07929@alum.MIT.EDU>, Robert Nestor writes:
>Dan McMahill <mcmahill@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>>What I am seeing is the following:
>>
>>I can run either "xconsole" or "xterm -C" and I do in fact get
>>the console messages in the console window.  Unfortunately, I also
>>get the console messages (plus a few others ?!) at the bottom of the
>>screen which messes up all my windows.  In particular I seem to get
>>a couple of extra messages when my ppp connection is made (something
>>about /dev/tty0 <-> ppp0 or some such thing) at the bottom of the
>>screen which don't appear in the console.

>You might edit /etc/sysconf and chage the routing of message to user 
>"root" to go to /dev/console instead.  This will correct what you're 
>seeing.  You can also disable starting getty on the console.  Change 
>/etc/ttys (the ttyv0) line from "on" to "off".  This should be done 
>anytime you're using xdm.  On some ports (i386 for one) if the console 
>isn't disabled this way xdm will screw up the keyborad handling.

on my system is was actually ttye0 not ttyv0.  The change to /etc/ttys
fixed everything.  hmmm I wonder if thats why the keyboard was messed
up when I tried this a year ago :)

Anyway, thanks Bob, I'm off and running now (in color!).

Dan