...
>  The first problem is that during the install, if you do no catch the hard
> disk size as it scrolls by, forget it. The option during installation of
> reviewing the dmesg output reports a file not found when running.

Right, no kernfs, or at least no /kern, so, no /kern/msgbuf. I'll check this
for the next snapshot and future releases. I remember noticing this, but thanks
for the reminder.

>  The second problem occurs after the creation of the device files and boot
> blocks. It simply dumps you into a shell with a 'follow the instructions
> to install the rest' Hun? when i installed the i386 version, there was a
> menu that presented the options of installation methods. What i ended up
> doing was using ftp and untarring all the sets. Should this  be like this?
> The INSTALL document certainly makes no mention of this!

Hmm, what about section 4.3: `4.3 Extracting the Operating System Files'?

And, yes, ftp and a manual un-tar(1) is exactly the right thing to do. Future
alpha releases will in fact feature the `sysinst' program that i386 already
has.

> ps. What is the current status of a non-tga xserver?

It has been working its way up the priority list. Now that a lot of the
foundation elements are neatly in place or at least in progress (install,
common frame buffer console, 4 TB VM system, most alpha platforms supported,
/usr/pkg, etc) some of the `desktop' (as opposed to `server') items can be
addressed.

  --Ross Harvey