> From owner-netbsd-help@NetBSD.ORG Wed Dec  6 16:12 PST 1995
> From: "D. J. Newman" <newman@cac.psu.edu>
> Date: Wed, 6 Dec 95 14:36:21 EST
> To: netbsd-help@NetBSD.ORG
> Subject: Can't boot (can't exec getty)
> 
> Hi:
> 
> I am trying to install NetBSD 1.1 on my i486 machine. I have a
> brand-new scsi hard disk with an Adaptek 1742 controller (and yes, I'm
> using the right kernel).
> 
> It boots up fine from the install disks, and I created the main disk,
> and can now mount it manually. Unfortunately, when I try to boot it up
> from the SCSI disk directly I get the initial bootup messages, up to
> 
> Changing root device to sd0a
> 
> (So far its obviously been reading from sd0a, because thats all the
> disk I have setup.)
> 
> Then I get a series of messages, every 30 seconds:
> 
> Dec 6 15:22:26 init: can't exec getty '/usr/libexec/getty' for port
> /dev/ttyv0: No such file or directory
> 

you are having the same problem that I had. can you boot single user?
did you notice that the boot messages complained about not being able
to mount /usr..

-brad w.