2.5 / 2.5.63-mm2 no console?

I compiled a 2.5.63-mm2 kernel for my lx164 last night and at first
thought it wasn't working at all as the console didn't change after milo
passed control to the kernel.  however being busy with other things i
let it sit there and noticed a bit later that it did indeed boot but
that it simply did not have a console; i could login via the network.

This is the first time i've tried a 2.5 kernel on any of my systems.
The kernel was compiled without framebuffer console support as that
appears to be too broken to compile in this kernel.  VGA text console
support is there.  I did not compile with serial console support.

Any idea how to get it to see and use the vga text console as is the
default when not told otherwise in 2.4?  Is this a 2.5 change or just
some current brokenness?

A console=tty0 kernel parameter did not work (i didn't really expect it
to as the problem is probably that whatever provides tty0 isn't...)

Greg