> I have netbsd 1.5 netbooting on my vax 4000/100
> (I don't think this is a vax problem)

First - I have only seen VMS on a vax, so take what I have to say with caution!

> I understand the procedure to be as follows:
> disklabel -I -i sd0     (I setup a=15M,b=32M,c=200M)

I thought that "c" meant the entire drive, so I would have guessed
a=15M,b=32M,c=270M,d=200M(where did the rest go?)

> newfs /dev/sd0c    (I couldn't do newfs /dev/sd0a because ba=0/fa=0)

Next I would have expected
newfs /dev/sd0a
newfs /dev/sd0e
(guessing that "b" is your swap)
(my using "e" is a hangover from i386, as there "d" usually means the entire
 drive, use "d" by all means...)

If there is an error with /dev/sd0a because ba=fa=0, how about changing them
(eg. ba=8192 fa=1024, but I really don't know how to recommend sensible
 numbers)

> mount /dev/sd0c /mnt/syquest
> tar -zxpf base.tgz -C /mnt/syquest
> (untar all of the distribution files)

Do you intend "a"=/, "e"=/usr ?

Then

mount /dev/sd0a /mnt
mkdir /mnt/usr
mount /dev/sd0e /mnt/usr
tar -zxpf base.tgz -C /mnt/syquest

Note: if this is "tar" from the INSTALL floppy, it really means "pax" which
doesn't have the -C syntax, so, not knowing better, I do

cd /mnt
tar -zxpf /mnt2/..../base.tgz

> disklabel -B sd0 -b /usr/mdec/sdboot

This is the vax bit I don't know about... looks good to me..

> This doesn't work for me. I _believe_ that it should!
> (hehe... I'm thinking that belief is not enough;)
> 
> Can anyone suggest where I may have gone wrong?

Nope, just see slight differences that may or may not matter...

Cheers,

Patrick