> >   I just switched to a new /boot, and I get the same garbled output.  It
> > looks like the bootstrap is clobbering the PROM fonts somehow.
> 
> Wow.   I don't think the bootblocks touch any PROM-reserved areas of RAM.
> What sort of machines are these problems happening on - I'll see if I
> can reproduce it here.

Yes, I get garbled characters on one line as the kernel is loading.
It should be something like

123456+678910+111213

but instead it's more like

#^%$#&^# #$#$^ #$ #$#
 
Where the above symbols are approximations of garbled fonts.

On my DS5000/260 "3maxplus"

Other than that, the boot seems to be fine, and 1.4 beta starts up fine.