> Solution of the
> mystery? On the IIcx my external disk became second in the SCSI chain; so
> fstab contained /dev/sd1a as read-write, but the install program had
> apparently set /dev/sd2a as root device, and mounted read-only. I had to
> fix it using the mini-shell.

This could have also been fixed in the single-user shell.  It should
have reported something _like_
/ on root_device (read-only, local)

You could then enter:
# mount -u /dev/sd1a /

to mount /dev/sd1a as r/w on /.  You should then be able to run things
like chmod, chown, etc. and, incidentally, "vi /etc/fstab"  ;-)

When you boot in single-user mode, root is always mounted
r/o--regardless of /etc/fstab.  This is to allow one to run
fsck on root safely.

-allen

-- 
Allen Briggs - end killing - allen.briggs@bev.net ** MacBSD == NetBSD/mac68k **
   Where does all my time go?  <a href="http://www.netbsd.org/">Guess.</a>