Lubomir Sedlacik wrote:
> make sure you have both /tmp and /var (it's there by default) listed in
> critical_filesystems_local rc.conf variable so they are actually mounted
> at the right time.
> 
> your /etc/rc.conf should have line:
> 
>   critical_filesystems_local="/var /tmp"

Nothing in /etc/rc.conf , but /etc/defaults/rc.conf has the following lines:

critical_filesystems_local="/var"
critical_filesystems_local="/usr"
clear_tmp="YES"   # This happens w/o error at bootup

Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
 > What does "mount" tell you?
mount
/dev/sd0a on / type ffs (local)
/dev/sd1a on /tmp type ffs (local)
/dev/sd1g on /home type ffs (local)

 > Was /tmp and /var really mounted?
I've since removed the separate /var mount.
/tmp was mounted.

 > What permissions does /tmp they have?
 > ls -ld /tmp
I think this is the culprit: If /tmp is left on sd0 (ie no separate 
mount; simply under "/" on sd0a), I get
ls -ld /tmp
drwxrwxrwx  3  root  wheel  512 Feb 20 12:08 /tmp

However, with /tmp mounted on sd1a, the permissions change to this:
ls -ld /tmp
drwxr-xr-x  3  root  wheel  512 Feb 20 12:08 /tmp

Doing chmod 777 tmp fixed the problem, although during the first reboot 
the system croaked on clear_tmp (I think). I did a newfs /dev/sda1 and 
rebooted , repeated the chmod 777 tmp thing, and it appears to have 
fixed the issue.

Why mounting /var on sd1 didn't work is still a mystery, but leaving it 
on sd0 isn't a problem, so no worrys for now :/

Cheers,
Beaker