In message <000f01c2d0fc$fda23fc0$59951ad3@windows>, "James Buchanan" writes:
>Hello list,
>
>I need to get rid of Windows tonight and install NetBSD (so preserving
>partitions isn't a problem at all.)  What is a problem for me is the
>hard disk:  if I am greeted with something like setting my disk's
>geometry, (I have a Seagate Barracuda 40GB HDD) what do I do, in terms
>of cylinders, heads, tracks and sectors?
>
>Also, I only have the first CD of NetBSD.  I need the basic NetBSD
>system, with GCC, basic X setup (afterstep is my favourite), printing
>support (CUPS), SoundBlaster Audigy 5.1 card support, Xfree86 3.6 +,
>Emacs, mail programme (mutt will do), and a D-Link DSL200 USB ADSL
>modem.  Is all the software I need on the first CD-ROM?
>
>Does anyone have any tips for me? :-)

You may find this harder than you'd like.  The disk installation is 
likely to be confusing but work well -- in my experience, the defaults 
are generally good enough.

X setup, on the other hand, I always find to be a challenge...

I have no idea if your sound card or DSL model are supported.  The 
latter is especially critical, because pkgsrc per se is just a 
framework; to install most packages, you need to download things.  Of 
the components you list, CUPS, Emacs, and Mutt are not part of the base 
system.  I don't know if there are precompiled packages for any of 
these.  (I just tried to check, but I think that Galeon is having trouble
with ftp URLs.)

		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb (me)
		http://www.wilyhacker.com (2nd edition of "Firewalls" book)