Duncan McEwan writes:
> I've just tried twice to install NetBSD in a spare partition on a disk
> currently containing FreeBSD.  Both times, the installation of NetBSD
> clobbered FreeBSD (at least to the extent that it would no longer boot -
> I don't believe it had actually overwritten the contents of FreeBSD
> partition, since I was careful in specifying cylinder counts, etc).

I think this is because NetBSD and FreeBSD use the same partition type.

> Thinking about it now, I don't think I've ever installed a dual boot
> NetBSD system (NetBSD and DOS) where the NetBSD partition was the first
> on the disk (previously DOS has always been first, and I've noticed that
> typically DOS partitions start on the 2nd track).

People typically do that because the NetBSD a partition has to be
below BIOS cylinder 1024 because the bios is used during boot.

> Is there any problem with a setup where NetBSD is the first partition on
> a disk?

Nope.

Perry