>2: how do i copy files from my mac partition to my sd0a partition? i
>   can't seem to figure out cpin/cpout in the installer...help!

In the installer, select Minishell in the file menu. Then you can type a
command like "cpin mymacfile mybsdfile" (using unix pathnames). You can use
cpout to get a file from the BSD filesystem to the Mac filesystem.

I don't know why you cannot edit the passwd file. I had the same troubles
because there was an error in my /etc/fstab file and my filesystem was
always mounted as read only. Maybe you're trying to login in single user
mode and therefore are in read only mode.

Bye!

Olivier