install/47842: NetBSD will not install on 'whole disk' if there is something in the MBR it doesn't like

[donaldcallen%gmail.com@localhost]

>Number:         47842
>Category:       install
>Synopsis:       NetBSD will not install on 'whole disk' if there is something 
>in the MBR it doesn't like
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       critical
>Priority:       high
>Responsible:    install-manager
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Mon May 20 20:00:00 +0000 2013
>Originator:     Don Allen
>Release:        6.1
>Organization:
None
>Environment:
N/A
>Description:
This problem is still present in 6.1. Here's a message I sent to one of the 
principal developers re 6.0rc2:

"I just attempted to install 6.0 RC2 on my old Thinkpad T42, another
old machine I use for experimenting. It has OpenBSD 5.1 installed,
which was done by telling their installer to use the whole disk, so no
GPT. I ask the NetBSD installer to use the whole disk and I still get
"device busy" when it attempts to newfs the filesystems. I can't do
the install. There really is a bug here, as I think you and I agreed
last March. When the installer is told "whole disk", it shouldn't
matter what is in the MBR; NetBSD should simply over-write it. The
installer actually says something to that effect, but it doesn't
behave that way."

This came up again today when I attempted to install 6.1 on a machine that I 
use for experimentation, where I'd previously installed FreeBSD, with a GPT 
partition table. Same thing -- the install failed with 'device busy'. This 
REALLY needs to be fixed, because it's an obnoxious bug that prevents people 
from installing NetBSD and it's been a problem with installer for too long.



>How-To-Repeat:
Already described.
>Fix: