Re: NetBSD 8.1 / Sun Ultra5 install crash during initial kernel device autosizing

I have no solutions, but just want to mention that I've had exactly this
problem on my Ultra 5, and it DOES boot using just the serial console if
that's the only input. I can get through the installation that way, but
booting up with the keyboard back on crashes during boot the same way. It
definitely feels related to the graphics hardware.

I did try a couple of different releases, but didn't take very good notes.
I think 7.1 works, 8.0 and 8.1 don't. I recently had to pack up my Ultra 5
for a bit so I haven't followed this up at all since noticing it.

On Wed, 4 Dec 2019 at 10:55, Jacob Ritorto <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi folks!
>   I have a 360MHz CPU, 512MB RAM Sun Ultra5 that, when booting from
> the NetBSD 8.1 install CDROM and working through the kernel's initial
> autosizing of devices, gets to mentioning the discovery of its m64
> graphics card, very briefly distorts the screen as if changing into
> some other frame buffer mode and abruptly goes black right then and
> there.  Even the monitor (Sun GDM-21) switches off and there's no more
> activity from the cdrom (which leads me to believe it's crashed,
> though I haven't tried a serial console yet.
>
> Is that a known issue?  Any guesses known workarounds?
>
> thx
> jake
>
> P.S. It does the exact same thing on my other Ultra5 with 256MB RAM,
> so unlikely just a broken hardware.
>
> P.P.S. My Ultra1 and SPARCStation 10 work very well under this same OS
> release (and with this same monitor) and don't crash when autosizing
> their graphics cards, though I do notice a font change happening
> around that time in the boot process.  Maybe related?
>