> This was the base snapshot for 1.3-ALPHA.  Tar did its stuff and seemed to
> untar everything without any problems.  However, now I cannot use any
> commands.  All commands come up with the same error message:
> 
>   Bad system call - core dumped

It's almost always safer to install and boot an up to date kernel before
updating userland.  It's not always necessary, but *usually* it doesn't
hurt.

One recent case where I think this wasn't true was with some changes
that meant that a 1.3ALPHA kernel couldn't run a 1.2G nfsd.

I'm not sure what the problem was (fvdl could probably explain it), but I was
a bit suprised when I read about it.  I thought that CSRG always maintained
backward binary compatibility for at least one release and that NetBSD did
the same.  Maybe binaries such as nfsd are special and so don't count, or
maybe a 1.2 nfsd will work on a 1.3 system and the problem is just with
intermediate versions available in netbsd-current between two releases.

In any event, I guess the only way to avoid such problems is to follow the
appropriate mailing list(s) carefully and pay attention to messages that
tell you to upgrade certain parts of userland before booting a new kernel.

Duncan