I think I can tell you the precise location of the problem:

THIS(!) IS LABELED "QUITE SIMPLE":

>You might point out that, with the exception of disk partitioning,
>bringing up a NetBSD system using command line utilities is actually
>quite simple. My method, briefly summarised, is this:
>
>    1. Boot the machine from a boot floppy or from the net.
>
>    2. Use sysinst to install i386 DOS partition table and MBR, if on
>       an i386 machine.
>
>    3. Set up the partitions on the disk:
>       disklabel sd0 >/tmp/foo && ed /tmp/foo && disklabel -r -R sd0 /tmp/foo
>       (the -r should be removed on sparc machines).
>
>    4. newfs the partitions and mount them under /mnt.
>
>    5. Unpack the distribution:
>       cd /mnt && for i in /wherever/*.tgz; do
>	   echo $i;
>	   tar -xpzf $i
>       done
>
>    6. Make the devices: cd /mnt/dev && ./MAKEDEV all
>
>    7. Make the disk bootable with /usr/mdec/installboot.
>
>    8. Reboot.
>
>    9. Mount all my paritions, create an /etc/fstab, vipw to clean up
>       the pw file and add myself, passwd root and me, edit /etc/rc.conf,
>       /etc/resolv.conf (if not using DHCP), /etc/ntp.conf, and anything
>       else that strikes my fancy. I put my network interface definitions
>       in /etc/rc.conf as `ifconfig_le0="inet 1.2.3.4 etc.".
>
>    10. Reboot and I'm working.
>
>This whole procedure takes perhaps twenty minutes, depending on the
>time to format the disks and whatnot. And anybody who goes through it
>is going to have a reasonable idea of how the machine comes up, which
>makes diagnosing problems easier.

Tell me something folks. When you learned to drive, did the instructor 
assume that you already knew how to drive, but just hadn't driven that 
particular car before? This is the problem with the netBSD docs as they 
stand now (what little there is of them). They all assume that the reader 
is already an experienced BSD/Unix/Linux user and just needs a little 
orientation session. Then they go right ahead and throw in a hefty dose 
of commands and BSD terminology without the slightest explanation of a 
single bit of it.

Now I've gotten far enough along with this whole mess that I can begin to 
see that it indeed is not all that difficult to install BSD. Making sense 
of the instructions is MUCH harder!

David Kachel