Hi,

>I've got a PowerBook 520c that I have reasonable access to, and I'd
>appreciate if if someone could answer these questions.  I've taken a good
>look at the netbsd & macbsd sites, and neither seem to give a
>straight-forward answer.  I've hacked on Unix plenty, and done a bit of
>68k assembly stuff, but I don't know Macs too well, so forgive me if I ask
>a FAQ.
>1) Is there some way I can *nondestructively* repartition a Mac disk, so
>as to have a partition just for BSD?  I'm fairly sure I could just add a
>Zip drive and get around that, but I don't currently own a Zip drive.

I've nondestructively repartitioned Mac disks a number of times, so "yes"
seems a reasonable answer :-) It is not for the faint of heart, however.
The usual disclaimers apply; if anything goes wrong, it is your fault, not
mine. Have a Mac guru sitting next to you, just in case...
That said, here is a short description of how I would do it.:

1. Make a backup of all data that is dear to you. (Consider getting that
   ZIP drive, or borrow one)
2. Run a defragmenter program like Norton SpeedDisk. This will move all
   the data on the existing partitions towards the beginning. Empty space
   will be at the end. You should boot from another disk, or from CD, to
   do the defragmentation. Also, the defragmenter program should not be
   on the partition you are defragmenting.
3. Defragmented partitions then can be resized. This takes space from the
   end of the partition. Apple's HD SC Setup 7.3.5 (patched to recognize
   your disk, if necessary; HOWTO is on www.mklinux.apple.com) can do the
   job. When necessary, move the partitions around to get contiguous space
   for the A/UX partitions you need for NetBSD.
4. Add those partitions: you need an A/UX Root, and an A/UX Swap; you may
   want a separate A/UX Usr partition as well.
5. Use NetBSD's mkfs to perpare the partitions, install, run the booter
   and hope for the best.

>2) Assuming that's yes, what exactly do I need to do to get a
>semi-operation system up?  I don't have to be able to build any apps, or
>dial up with the modem; I just want it to boot and give me a shell and a
>filesystem.  I can provide more info about the system if necessary, just
>tell me what you want.

Believe me, you will want to build apps, dial up with the modem, etc.
I'd suggest to just install the full distribution.

>3) Is anyone working on some sort of step-by-step guide for this?  It
>would be great for people like me who aren't afraid of hacking around with
>BSD once it's on the machine, but who don't have a clue of how to get it
>on there without hosing MacOS.

I hope the above helps a bit. Good luck.

Best wishes,

          Nico van Eikema Hommes

--
  Dr. N.J.R. van Eikema Hommes     Computer-Chemie-Centrum
  hommes@ccc.uni-erlangen.de       Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg
  Phone:    +49-(0)9131-856532     Naegelsbachstr. 25
  FAX:      +49-(0)9131-856566     D-91052 Erlangen, Germany