> Hi,
> I tried everything the way I was told in this list to install NetBSD y my
> laptop, but it still doesn't work. I created a particion NetBSD kind of
> ~2Gb, selected custom and divided it in label "a" with offset at the
> beginning of the BSD real particion and set its size to 1479 MB, then
label
> "b" as swap with the remaining 600 MB starting at the end of the "a"
labeled
> part and taking the rest of the space in the BSD particion. This time I
> selected to install a bootmanager (not installing it didn't work, so I
gave
> it a try), but still it all dies with this message: "mount of device
> /dev/wd0a on / failed" (I set / as the mount point for "a"). The screen
> flashes to fast to see the command executing, though I guess it is "mount"
> with some parameters, and then the error shows in the blue screen of the
> installer. Did I miss something? Could it be that the installer can not
> access the BSD particion of 2Gb at the end of a hard drive of 30 ? Should
I
> set any bios parameter or something like that?
>

hi,
WHEN does the mount error appear? when you finish the partitioning? after
creation of the filesystem? during boot process of the newly installed
system?

are you sure that the filesystem is properly created?
are you sure that your partitions (a, b, ...) don't overlap with the windoze
one? (you can see an example of working partitioning at the end of this
mail)

you could try to try to install netbsd not using the installer. it's little
harder, but you have absolute control on what you're doing and you also get
all the messages, because installer program is not used.

now i have another idea. you could try to proceed the installation using the
installer and as it reports some problem (if it is your case) you could exit
the installer and use the command prompt (it's somewhere in the menus -
probably the "other" or "utility" - i can't recall it just now). you can
then try to mount the filesystem by your own (you'll find the right command
in the netbsd guide - read below) and you should then get all the errors...

the "howto" is described in frederico luppi's netbsd guide (it's possible to
find on netbsd webpage)

just one more thing. it s not very good idea to have root filesystem (/)
together with /usr (as was previously mentioned on the list by
bibi.papa@free.fr) in one partition. if you want to use just these 2 gigs,
i'd do something like

a    200mb    /    (probably could be even less, all files in my / occupy
something about 50mb)
b    512mb    swap
c    whole disk
d    netbsd part of the disk
e    remaining space    /usr

i can show you the partitioning of my colleague, she has both netbsd and
windoze on the disk (the sizes are in cylinders)...
#        size    offset     fstype  [fsize bsize cpg/sgs]
 a:   2095632  20486592     4.2BSD   1024  8192    86   # (Cyl. 20324 -
22402)    /
 b:   2094624  22582224       swap                      # (Cyl. 22403 -
24480)    no mountpoint
 c:  96744816  20486592     unused      0     0         # (Cyl. 20324 -
116300)    no mountpoint
 d: 117231408         0     unused      0     0         # (Cyl.    0 -
116300)    no mountpoint
 e:  20482812        63       NTFS                      # (Cyl.    0*-
20320*)    no mountpoint => not accessible under netbsd
 f:  20526912  24676848     4.2BSD   1024  8192    86   # (Cyl. 24481 -
44844)    /usr
 g:  72027648  45203760     4.2BSD   1024  8192    86   # (Cyl. 44845 -
116300)    /some_other_directory

it is probably nonsense, but cannot the notebook (in fact BIOS) somehow
block the access to your disk? some BIOSes have the anti-boot virus feature
and don't allow modification of the mbr and bootsectors... it could maybe
cause problems - but i'm not sure about this.

hth,
lubos

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Lubos Vrbka
National Centre for Biomolecular Research
Masaryk university, Brno, Czech Republic

shnek@chemi.muni.cz
http://www.chemi.muni.cz/~shnek
tel. +420 541 129 508
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