diff --git a/share/man/man4/gdb.4 b/share/man/man4/gdb.4
index 8101b28503f5..0a84417df396 100644
--- a/share/man/man4/gdb.4
+++ b/share/man/man4/gdb.4
@@ -86,11 +86,13 @@ Investigate them from the kernel build directory with:
 .Pp
 In this mode, the system is obviously stopped, so you can only look at it.
 .Ss Debugging a live system with a remote link
+In the following discussion, the term ``local system'' refers to the system
+running the debugger, and ``remote system'' refers to the live system being
+debugged.
+.Pp
 To debug a live system with a remote link, the kernel must be compiled with the
-options
-.Cd options DDB
-and
-.Cd options GDB_REMOTE_CHAT .
+option
+.Cd options DDB .
 The option
 .Cd options BREAK_TO_DEBUGGER 
 enables the debugging machine stop the debugged machine once a connection has
@@ -109,39 +111,39 @@ should be:
 .Bd -literal -offset 5m
 hint.sio.0.flags="0x90"
 .Ed
+.Pp
+To share a console and debug connection on a serial line, use the
+.Cd options GDB_REMOTE_CHAT
+option.
 .Ss Debugging a live system with a remote firewire link
 As with serial debugging, to debug a live system with a firewire link, the
-kernel must be compiled with the options
-.Cd options DDB
-and
-.Cd options GDB_REMOTE_CHAT .
+kernel must be compiled with the option
+.Cd options DDB .
+The 
+.Cd options GDB_REMOTE_CHAT
+is not necessary, since the firewire implementation uses separate ports for the
+console and debug connection.
 .Pp
 A number of steps must be performed to set up a firewire link:
 .Pp
 .Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact
 .It
-First, ensure that the kernels of both systems include firewire support.  
-If it isn't compiled into the kernel, load the klds:
+Ensure that both systems have firewire support, and that the kernel of the
+remote system includes the
+.Nm dcons
+and
+.Nm dcons_crom 
+drivers.
+If they're not compiled into the kernel, load the klds:
 .Bd -literal -offset 5m
-# \f(CBkldload dcons\fP
-# \f(CBkldload dcons_crom\fP
+# \f(CBkldload firewire\fP
+# \f(CBkldload dcons\fP			\fI(remote system only)\fP\/
+# \f(CBkldload dcons_crom\fP		\fI(remote system only)\fP\/
 .Ed
 .Pp
 You should see something like this in the
 .Nm dmesg
-output:
-.Pp
-.Bd -literal -offset 5m
-fwohci0: BUS reset
-fwohci0: node_id=0xc000ffc1, gen=3, CYCLEMASTER mode
-firewire0: 2 nodes, maxhop <= 1, cable IRM = 1 (me)
-firewire0: bus manager 1 (me)
-firewire0: New S400 device ID:000199000003622b
-dcons_crom0: <dcons configuration ROM> on firewire0
-dcons_crom0: bus_addr 0xf93000
-.Ed
-.Pp
-The corresponding output on the other machine looks like this:
+output of the remote system:
 .Pp
 .Bd -literal -offset 5m
 fwohci0: BUS reset
@@ -157,13 +159,28 @@ It's a good idea to load these modules at boot time with the following entry in
 .Pa /boot/loader.conf :
 .Pp
 .Bd -literal -offset 5m
-dcons_enable=YES
+dcons_crom_enable=YES
 .Ed
 .Pp
+This ensures that all three modules are loaded.
+There is no harm in loading
+.Nm dcons
+and
+.Nm dcons_crom
+on the local system, but if you only want to load the firewire module, include
+the following in
+.Pa /boot/loader.conf :
+.Pp
+.Bd -literal -offset 5m
+firewire_enable=YES
+.Ed
+.Pp
+.Pp
 .It
 Next, use
 .Nm fwcontrol 
-to find the firewire node corresponding to the remote machine:
+to find the firewire node corresponding to the remote machine.  
+On the local machine you might see:
 .Pp
 .Bd -literal -offset 5m
 # \f(CBfwcontrol\fP
@@ -189,33 +206,33 @@ node        EUI64        status
 .Pp
 .It
 Next, establish a firewire connection with
-.Nm fwchat :
+.Nm dconschat :
 .Pp
 .Bd -literal -offset 5m
-# \f(CBfwchat -b  -t \f[CBI]target-address\fR
+# \f(CBdconschat -br -G 5556 -t 0x000199000003622b\fP
 .Ed
 .Pp
-.Ar target-address
-is the EUI64 address of the remote node, in this case
-.Li 0x000199000003622b .
-When started in this manner, 
-.Nm fwchat
-establishes two local tunnel connections:
-.Ar localhost:5555
-is a connection to a
-.Nm getty 
-process, which is not of interest here, and
-.Ar localhost:5556
-is a connection to the debugger.
-The port numbers can be changed with the
-.Fl p
-flag to
-.Nm fwcontrol .
-.Pp
+.Ar 0x000199000003622b
+is the EUI64 address of the remote node, as determined from the output of
 .Nm fwcontrol
+above.
+When started in this manner, 
+.Nm dconschat
+establishes a local tunnel connection from port
+.Ar localhost:5556
+to the remote debugger.
+You can also establish a console port connection with the
+.Fl C
+option to the same invocation
+.Nm dconschat .
+See
+.Xr dconschat 8
+for further details.
+.Pp
+.Nm dconschat
 does not return control to the user.  
-You can start it in the background, but sometimes it will produce error
-messages, so it's a good idea to start it in its own window.
+It displays error messages and console output for the remote system, so it's a
+good idea to start it in its own window.
 .Pp
 .It
 Finally, establish connection:
@@ -236,23 +253,29 @@ to load the kld symbols.  That's a less obnoxious interface.
 0xc21bd378 in ?? ()
 .Ed
 .Pp
-.It
-It's currently possible for the two ends of the firewire link to get out of sync
-after a reboot.  
-On the
-.Nm fwchat
-screen you see:
+The
+.Nm trf
+macro assumes a connection on port 5556.
+If you want to use a different port (by changing the invocation of
+.Nm dconschat
+above), use the
+.Nm tr
+macro instead.  
+For example, if you want to use port 4711, run 
+.Nm dconschat
+like this:
+.Pp
 .Bd -literal -offset 5m
-fwchat: get crom faild
+# \f(CBdconschat -br -G 4711 -t 0x000199000003622b\fP
 .Ed
 .Pp
-In this case, stop
-.Nm fwchat
-and perform a firewire bus reset:
+Then establish connection with:
 .Pp
 .Bd -literal -offset 5m
-# \f(CBfwcontrol -r\fP
-# \f(CBfwchat -b -t 0x000199000003622b\fP
+(gdb) \f(CBtr localhost:4711\fP
+0xc21bd378 in ?? ()
+.Ed
+.Pp
 .El
 .Sh COMMANDS
 The user interface to
@@ -430,7 +453,7 @@ This causes the contents of free  memory to be set to
 .Li 0xdeadc0de .
 .It Cm dmesg
 Print the system message buffer.  This corresponds to the
-.Nm dmesg
+.Xr dmesg 8
 command.
 It can take a very long time over a serial line, and it's even slow via firewire
 or local memory due to inefficiencies in
@@ -466,26 +489,32 @@ message to remind you to remove it again.
 This man page was written by 
 .An "Greg Lehey" Aq grog@FreeBSD.org
 .Sh SEE ALSO
+.Xr dconschat 8 ,
 .Xr ddb 4 ,
-.Xr fwchat 8 ,
 .Xr fwcontrol 8 ,
 .Xr gdb 1 ,
+.Xr kldload 8 ,
 .Xr vinumdebug 4 .
 .\" .Sh HISTORY
 .Sh BUGS
-.Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact
+.Bl -bullet -compact
 .It
 .Nm
 was never designed to debug kernels, and it's not a very good match.
 Many problems exist.
 .It
+The
+.Nm gdb
+implementation is very inefficient, and many operations are slow.
+.It
+Serial debugging is even slower, and race conditions can make it difficult to
+run the link at more than 9600 bps.  Firewire connections do not have this
+problem.
+.It
 The debugging macros ``just growed''.  
 In general, the person who wrote them did so while looking for a specific
 problem, so they may not be general enough, and they may behave badly when used
 in ways for which they were not intended, even if those ways make sense.
 .It
-Serial debugging is very slow, and race conditions can make it difficult to run
-the link at more than 9600 bps.  Firewire connections do not have this problem.
-.It
 Many of these commands only work on the ia32 architecture.
 .El