On Thu, Jun 05, 2008 at 06:15:34PM -0400, Taylor R Campbell wrote:
> A third issue of somewhat less importance -- since I can, and shall
> anyway, just use screen -- is whether tty-switching with wscons is now
> supported.
It is supported since at least 4.0. To make use of this, you'll need
to add a number of terminal entries to /etc/ttys (set status to
'on' except for the console) If you are going to use X, at least one
needs to have status 'off'. Furthermore, you will need to add screen
entries to /etc/wscons.conf
The keys to switch ttys are Alt+Apple+F1 through F5 if you have 5
entries. However, the default kernel requires you to hold the "Fn" key
while pressing one of the function keys to get it interpreted as a
function key. If you don't press the Fn key, it sees the keypress as
one of the media keys (brightness, volume control, numlock and eject)
The problem here is that it requires a pretty specific sequence of
keypresses to get the keys interpreted correctly. At least on my iBook,
you will need to press and hold Alt+Apple first, then press and hold Fn
and only then press the function key. Otherwise the terminal prints
gibberish like "~2". This annoyance can be changed by enabling the
FORCE_FUNCTION_KEYS kernel option. This swaps the meaning of a function
keypress while holding "Fn" and without holding it, so you can just
press Alt+Apple+F1, for example. (don't know why this isn't the default,
as it is much saner)
> As a postscript, does anyone have any further thoughts or advice on
> the use of NetBSD on a PowerBook for a general-purpose work machine?
> Anything other important snags that will make me stumble? Anything
> especially spiffy that I ought to know about?
I use a nice bootmenu that I got from this mailinglist and tweaked a
bit. It's available from ftp://frohike.homeunix.org/other/bootmenu.4th
Just set the OFW variables 'auto-boot?' to 'true' and 'boot-command' to
'boot hd:,\bootmenu.4th'. The bootmenu file needs to live on a HFS
partition so OFW can read it.
Regards,
Peter
--
http://sjamaan.ath.cx
--
"The process of preparing programs for a digital computer
is especially attractive, not only because it can be economically
and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic
experience much like composing poetry or music."
-- Donald Knuth
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