Wolfgang Helbig <helbig@Informatik.BA-Stuttgart.DE> writes:

> > > Offering an option to the user to overwrite the mbr code probably does
> > > make the most sense here.
> >
> > Actually, if we find that there is only one BIOS partition on the
> > machine that takes up the whole disk, it would make sense to install
> > the NetBSD mbr code whether there is an existing one there or not.
> > Of course, a radio button display would work too.
> 
> In that case, sysinst could even go one step further and configure
> the NetBSD partition to start at the very beginning of the disk, and
> put the first stage boot program in the first sector of the disk.
> This would give me 63 sectors of the first track (which are unused now).
> And it would be really cool :-)

This solution and the whole disk netbsd installation have always
bothered be.  First we're only talking about 63 sectors (32k) here;
hardly worth saving.  Second we invite all sorts of later problems
with bios, or when the user decides to put in another disk and add
osbs or ... to boot from it.  I think we could make installations
easier/more consistent if we just followed everyone else and stayed
away from the first track.