From: matthew green <mrg@eterna.com.au>
   
   > There are 3 files here.  One is a kernel boot floppy image,
   > one is a microroot filesystem image, and one is a miniroot
   > filesystem image.  The first two go together.  You boot from
   > the boot disk, and when it ejects that floppy, you put in
   > the second and press return.  Then NetBSD loads that
   > filesystem into RAM and uses it as the root device.  The
   > idea is here to allow disk formatting, etc.  The final
   > filesystem image is larger than a floppy and is the full
   > miniroot used on several NetBSD ports.  It is planned that
   > the microroot will automagically load the miniroot for you
   > but at this point, you need to load it manually into the
   > swap partition and then boot it.
   
   Well, my ELC doesn't have a floppy so I guess using the first 2
   files are out. 8-)  Can I just put the miniroot on a tape (or disk)
   and boot /netbsd from in there?  And in my case, do I need a
   disklabel if I put it on a disk?  David's root, although large was
   very simple to use.  Just" gzcat root.gz | dd of=/dev/sd1c", move
   a disk, and boot with /netbsd.  Do/will we have something that
   simple for tape, floppies, CD-ROM, and disk?  I don't have any
   problem with "Insert second floppy now" messages for small media,
   but this doesn't sound quite that clean.  Are you trying to move
   it in that direction, or am I reading it to be harder than it is?

the miniroot is designed to be generic enough to be loadable
from anywhere:  the network, a tape, a disk, floppies, etc.

i suggest putting it on a b partition somewhere and booting
from there.  it should allow you to install netbsd (indeed,
it should have the install program).

i'll be looking at the boot.fs problem later.

.mrg.