Ancient notebook... New FreeBSD

I have a pair of IBM Thinkpad 755CX notebooks that I really need to get
running -STABLE correctly.  The issues are with the video.   As you may
recall, this unit uses the WD90C24 vga chip and has 1MB of vid RAM.  On
power-up, it is in 640x480 mode, with a black border all around the screen.
It is capable of running 800x600, and to make it do so, you run a DOS 
command.  I've trompted my way through list archives of all sorts, and 
have accomplished all of this now:

1.  Built a tiny DOS partition to boot from.
2.  Built a nice FreeBSD 4.7-STABLE partition.
3.  Put ps2.exe (the utility) and bsdboot.exe in DOS partition
4.  Built /kernel with baked-in path to root at ad0s2a
5.  Copied /kernel into DOS partition.
6.  Boot DOS, autoexec.bat runs:

    ps2 MODE3X on
    bsdboot /kernel

7.  FreeBSD is up and running, except that sysconsoles are all 100x37,
even though BSD runs them as 80x25, jumbling up the screen.
8.  Installed XFree86 version 3 (vers 4 doesn't support the WD90C24 chip)
9.  Hacked /etc/XF86config to run with this chip and at 800x600 (works!)

Now, I really want the sysconsoles to look good, too.  Vidcontrol(1) states:

  The following command will set-up a 100x37 raster text mode (useful for
  some LCD models):

       vidcontrol -g 100x37 VESA_800x600

...and that's just exactly what I want to do.  I added the SC_PIXEL_MODE
option to the kernel config (built,reboot, etc), and vidcontrol says
that it can't switch device into raster mode.  So, I figure I need to
add the VESA option to the kernel config (b,r,e), and when I do, I get a
page fault in kernel mode on boot.  I get it when I try to kldload the
vesa.ko module when VESA isn't in the kernel, too.  I have symbols and
DDB in the kernel, but the error message doesn't seem to incriminate
anything that's display-related.

Perhaps the WD90C24 isn't supported any more?  Is there a CMOS setting
that creating a I/O memory conflict?  Am I just wasting my time?

Thanks in advance,

-Les

The dmesg from the notebook:

Copyright (c) 1992-2002 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
	The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
FreeBSD 4.7-STABLE #0: Tue Nov 19 12:07:20 MST 2002
    [email protected]:/usr/src/sys/compile/DINKPAD
Timecounter "i8254"  frequency 1193182 Hz
CPU: Pentium/P54C (75.00-MHz 586-class CPU)
  Origin = "GenuineIntel"  Id = 0x524  Stepping = 4
  Features=0x1bf<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,MCE,CX8>
real memory  = 41943040 (40960K bytes)
avail memory = 36130816 (35284K bytes)
Intel Pentium detected, installing workaround for F00F bug
md0: Malloc disk
npx0: <math processor> on motherboard
npx0: INT 16 interface
isa0: <ISA bus> on motherboard
vt0 on isa0
vt0: generic, 80 col, color, 8 scr, unknown kbd, [R3.20-b24]
vt0: driver is using old-style compatability shims
orm0: <Option ROM> at iomem 0xc0000-0xc7fff on isa0
fdc0: <NEC 72065B or clone> at port 0x3f0-0x3f5,0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2 on isa0
fdc0: FIFO enabled, 8 bytes threshold
fd0: <1440-KB 3.5" drive> on fdc0 drive 0
ata0 at port 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 irq 14 on isa0
ata1 at port 0x170-0x177,0x376 irq 15 on isa0
atkbdc0: <Keyboard controller (i8042)> at port 0x60,0x64 on isa0
atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> flags 0x1 irq 1 on atkbdc0
kbd0 at atkbd0
psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0
psm0: model Generic PS/2 mouse, device ID 0
vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0
sc0: <System console> at flags 0x100 on isa0
sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300>
pcic0: <Intel i82365SL-A/B> at port 0x3e0 iomem 0xd0000 on isa0
pcic0: Polling mode
pccard0: <PC Card 16-bit bus (classic)> on pcic0
pccard1: <PC Card 16-bit bus (classic)> on pcic0
sio0: configured irq 4 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0
sio0 at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa0
sio0: type 8250
sio1: configured irq 3 not in bitmap of probed irqs 0
ppc0: cannot reserve I/O port range
ad0: 773MB <DVAA-2810> [1571/16/63] at ata0-master BIOSPIO
no B_DEVMAGIC (bootdev=0)
Mounting root from ufs:ad0s2a
pccard: card inserted, slot 0
ep0: <3Com Etherlink III 3C589> at port 0x240-0x24f irq 10 slot 0 on pccard0
ep0: Ethernet address 00:20:af:c2:b0:e5

-- 
Les Biffle
CISSP               Information Systems Security Consultant
(480) 585-4099   [email protected]  http://www.networksafety.com/
Network Safety,  PO Box 14461,   Scottsdale, AZ 85267

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