(I've taken current-users off of the cc line, since this is a i386-only
thing).

>>6. I messed up a bit and reloaded several times (on the same boot),
>>   once from the initial menu option -- specifying the disk geometry
>>   options and several times from the upgrade menu option.  I also
>>   had an old disklabel in the NetBSD partition when I started.  But I did
>>   get the system to extract into root & /usr.  When I rebooted, I 
>>   discovered that my MBR was 0.  THIS SHOULD NEVER BE POSSIBLE.  The 
>>   install should always check to make sure that the mbr looks plausible
>>   before it is written.  Luckily, I had the contents written down, so
>>   I could use pfdisk and fdisk /mbr to recover.
>
>Appalling.

You know, when doing my most recent install, I almost did this ... and
I think that I understand part of the problem.

I have a SCSI controller, and I have translated BIOS geometry.  pfdisk
and the NetBSD fdisk _report different information_ .... and the NetBSD
fdisk information is the one you need to use to feed to disklabel so
it doesn't wipe the MBR.

I really don't understand all of the magic here ... anyone have a clue
what causes this?  I can provide more information if needed.

--Ken