>It sounds like you screwed up the install somehow -- all those things
>certainly are in 1.5.2, and there haven't been other reports of
>problems like this.

>I would suggest that you try re-installing.

>Perry

Reinstall from scratch, or "Upgrade"?  I don't think I need to redo the
partition again.

from Richard Rauch:

>I *assume* that you took the CD out and rebooted, after installing the
>system...but what you describe sounds rather more like the installation
>system rather than a post-install NetBSD.

>When you booted the install CD, did you disable anything?  Did you lean
>towards ``custom'' installation, or did you just ask it to install
>everything?  (I believe that if you do the latter, you get everything but
>pkgsrc and sources fully loaded up.  pkgsrc and sources need to be
>grabbed seperately, as I recall.)

>(I also assume that you used the bootable CD images from a NetBSD site.)


>One possible exlanation is that /etc/rc.conf doesn't have

>rc_configured=YES

Actually I bought the set of 3 CDs from LSL (Linux System Labs), I think it's
the official set, intended for installation on all NetBSD-supported
architectures.  I don't think downloading CD images is practical at 56K.

I read the NetBSD CDs, as much as possible without support for long file names
in DOS, on the old computer, so I saw what was to be installed; also saw it
browsing http://www.netbsd.org and links therefrom.

I thought I asked it to install everything including X.

Next step after NetBSD install was to boot the OpenBSD 2.9 CD (first of two
CDs).  I got dmesg followed by opening menu, and pckbc: command timeout after I
responded to the opening menu.  Didn't like the same keyboard that was OK with
DR-DOS 7.03, Linux (Debian) and NetBSD 1.5.2?  Ironic in that the OpenBSD 2.9
diskette, made from an image file downloaded from the NetBSD site, booted on my
old computer, while NetBSD installation diskettes or kernels with DOSBOOT all
hung before getting all the way through with dmesg.

I think booting from the hard disk would go into Debian 2.2.3 under current
configuration, not DR-DOS 7.03 or NetBSD.  With Linux on logical partition(s),
I think my best bet for booting all OSes is LILO.

>...I remember that when I first installed 1.3 (1.3.1?), this wasn't set in
>a fresh install.  Fortunately, I knew how to use ed to fix that.  (^&
>Without this set, the system won't come up multiuser, and I don't think
>that /usr will be mounted.

>(I thought that *every* system that I've installed since 1.3(.1?) has had
>ths set by default anyway.  But it would much of what you see if it
>weren't set.)

I don't know about multiuser, but was able to see /usr and its limited contents,
so I guess it was mounted.  I also ran 'mount' command with no arguments.

>Another possible explanation is that you did something weird (or didn't do
>something normal) when booting from the install CD.

>To double check, try re-installing from the CD.  Unless you really need to
>preserve parts of the disk for other OS's right now, start by assuming
>that NetBSD will use the whole system.  Let it format your system
>completely.  Accept defaults for most things, except:

Apparently you read through my original message too fast, missing the part about
DR-DOS 7.03 and Linux.  But now I have the NetBSD partition in place and
subdivided/disklabeled.  I suppose I could even add the Linux and DOS partitions
with the starting and ending cylinder, but would need to express this in
cylinders, not MB.

> * Do not ask for any options that involve customization.  Get the system
    to fill in as much as it will.  (I can't remember if any defaults would
    press you to make customizations, but there are ``no-brainer'' options
    that should just work, in any case.)

> * Ask for a Full installation plus X.  I think that the default is a
    full install (sans X).

> * Ask the system to display files as they are unpacked from the archives.
    (I don't know if this will tell you anything useful, but it will
    give you the reassurance that it's all unpacking in an orderly way.)
    The default, I recall, is to NOT display the files.

I guess displaying the files would help, but was afraid it would be very slow
with all the numerous files.  I didn't ask for any customization, and thought I
asked for full install including X.  I thought I used sysinst, though not
directly from a shell prompt.

>When done, pop the CD out and select the menu option to reboot.

Reboot into what?  I believe current configuration will boot into Debian if I
boot from hard disk.  But after I install Slackware, I should be able to choose
with LILO.