On 18 Apr 2005, at 17:31, Michael wrote:

>> If I use devalias can I alias more than the device? For example, I can
>> already boot with
>> boot hd:9,ofwboot.xcf
>> I wanted to make this shorter.
> setenv boot-device hd:9,ofwboot.xcf
> setenv boot-file hd:10/netbsd
> ( with the respective partition numbers changed as needed )
> and then just
> boot

This looks like a good way... my nvaliases have now mysteriously 
vanished and I can't boot at all, even with the long (/pci...) command; 
I get a few lines after XCOFF and then
open /netbsd: No such file or directory
open /netbsd.gz: No such file or directory
open /netbsd.macppc: No such file or directory

Never mind, I shall reinstall (again) and change some of the things I 
find out about immediately after reinstalling. I need two bits of 
advice:

1) when booting BSD I got a 'Warning: no swap space configured' message 
(along with a few other warnings): should I have a separate partition 
for swap space (or can it use a directory as swap)? If I have a 6GB HD 
and 4GB is devoted to NetBSD at present, how big should that partition 
be?

2) I didn't customise the installation last time. Should I be 
specifying the GENERIC_LAPTOP kernel? -- I think sysinst installed all 
of them before and used GENERIC.

Oh yes, and when Open Firmware won't give me a 0 > prompt because it's 
waiting for me to type something acceptable for it to boot, what's the 
alternative to forcibly shutting down by holding the power button?