Re: HP 9000-382 based instrument panics on cnopen()

> I took a short video of the panic scroll: https://imgur.com/ik8GabY <https://imgur.com/ik8GabY>

It might help to post full dmesg (even on video).

Probably the framebuffer is recognized cnattach (early console detection)
 https://nxr.netbsd.org/xref/src/sys/arch/hp300/dev/topcat.c?r=1.4.64.1#537
but not during the device autoconfiguration.
 https://nxr.netbsd.org/xref/src/sys/arch/hp300/dev/topcat.c?r=1.4.64.1#196

> 1. Is there a kernel boot switch or (build-time config option) that
> I can use to point console to the serial port to see if I can get further?

You need HIL keyboard to enable serial,
 https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/hp300faq/#serial400
or build kernel with "options CONSCODE=9" enabled.
 https://nxr.netbsd.org/xref/src/sys/arch/hp300/conf/GENERIC?a=true&r=1.203#151

> 2. Is there a way to have the hp300 port use the simple text interface
> that most graphics cards provide for its console, if I can't (or I don't
> want to) use a "graphical" console?

AFAIK no hp300 framebuffer has "text" mode such as VGA.

Trying NetBSD/5.x (i.e. pre-wscons'fied) might help to get explicit dmesg
with built-in ROM fonts with old ite(4) and grf(4) console.

---
Izumi Tsutsui