VAXstation 4000/90 - ssh & display oddities

[David Brownlee <abs%absd.org@localhost>]

I've just been playing with NetBSD-5.1.2 on a 4000/90 and

The first issue is that the display blanks when the kernel loads.
I have it hooked up to a dell TFT (its a little odd to see the slightly wavy
background faithfully reproduced on a non CRT, but I digress).
The PROM prompt displays fine, as does the NetBSD boot program, but
as soon as the kernel loads the screen goes blank (when I say blank I
can still see the same wavy background, so its still getting a signal).

dmesg is below.

Are there any special requirements for the spx under NetBSD which are
stricter than the boot prompt?

NetBSD 5.1.2 (GENERIC) #0: Thu Feb  2 22:10:32 UTC 2012
        
builds%b7.netbsd.org@localhost:/home/builds/ab/netbsd-5-1-2-RELEASE/vax/201202021012Z-obj/home/builds/ab/netbsd-5-1-2-RELEASE/src/sys/arch/vax/compile/GENERIC
MicroVAX 4000/90
total memory = 127 MB
avail memory = 120 MB
timecounter: Timecounters tick every 10.000 msec
mainbus0 (root)
cpu0 at mainbus0: KA49, NVAX, 10KB L1 cache, 256KB L2 cache
ze0 at mainbus0
ze0: hardware address 08:00:2b:92:86:82
vsbus0 at mainbus0
vsbus0: 8K entry DMA SGMAP at PA 0x27000000 (VA 0x8afe2000)
vsbus0: interrupt mask 0
dz0 at vsbus0 csr 0x25000000 vec 524 ipl 17 maskbit 3
dz0: 4 lines
lkms0 at dz0
wsmouse0 at lkms0 mux 0
asc0 at vsbus0 csr 0x26000080 vec 510 ipl 17 maskbit 1
asc0: NCR53C94, 25MHz, SCSI ID 7
scsibus0 at asc0: 8 targets, 8 luns per target
spx0 at vsbus0 csr 0x38000000 vec 514 ipl 15 maskbit 2
spx0: Using QVSS 8x15 font
spx0: RAMDAC ID: 0x4a, Bt459 (SPX/LCSPX) RAMDAC type
wsdisplay0 at spx0 kbdmux 1
wsmux1: connecting to wsdisplay0
wsdisplay0: screen 0-7 added (160x68, vt100 emulation)
timecounter: Timecounter "clockinterrupt" frequency 100 Hz quality 0
timecounter: Timecounter "mfpr" frequency 1000000 Hz quality 100
scsibus0: waiting 2 seconds for devices to settle...
sd0 at scsibus0 target 1 lun 0: <SEAGATE, ST39173N, 6244> disk fixed
sd0: 8683 MB, 7501 cyl, 10 head, 237 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 17783240 sectors
sd0: sync (160.00ns offset 15), 8-bit (6.250MB/s) transfers, tagged queueing
Kernelized RAIDframe activated
boot device: ze0

For anyone still reading - I had a little bit of entertainment getting NetBSD
running on the box as I've not yet been able to get anything on the
serial console,
but I've just ordered a replacement for my RS-232 inline tester so I'll assume
I've borked something in the connectors and come back to that once it
arrives :)

The serial console and display issue combined to make install a little
entertaining.
In the end I setup a netboot environment, edited rc.conf to enable ssh
and sshd_config
to enable root login, dropped my authorized_keys in .ssh, booted blind
and waited for
it to start listening on port 22.

Then I spent some time cursing why it was refusing my ssh key before enabling
telnetd in inetd and rebooting. finally worked out /root/.ssh was permission 775
rather than 755... tsk :)