I *assume* that you took the CD out and rebooted, after installing the
system...but what you describe sounds rather more like the installation
system rather than a post-install NetBSD.

When you booted the install CD, did you disable anything?  Did you lean
towards ``custom'' installation, or did you just ask it to install
everything?  (I believe that if you do the latter, you get everything but
pkgsrc and sources fully loaded up.  pkgsrc and sources need to be
grabbed seperately, as I recall.)

(I also assume that you used the bootable CD images from a NetBSD site.)


One possible exlanation is that /etc/rc.conf doesn't have

rc_configured=YES

...I remember that when I first installed 1.3 (1.3.1?), this wasn't set in
a fresh install.  Fortunately, I knew how to use ed to fix that.  (^&
Without this set, the system won't come up multiuser, and I don't think
that /usr will be mounted.

(I thought that *every* system that I've installed since 1.3(.1?) has had
ths set by default anyway.  But it would much of what you see if it
weren't set.)


Another possible explanation is that you did something weird (or didn't do
something normal) when booting from the install CD.

To double check, try re-installing from the CD.  Unless you really need to
preserve parts of the disk for other OS's right now, start by assuming
that NetBSD will use the whole system.  Let it format your system
completely.  Accept defaults for most things, except:

 * Do not ask for any options that involve customization.  Get the system
   to fill in as much as it will.  (I can't remember if any defaults would
   press you to make customizations, but there are ``no-brainer'' options
   that should just work, in any case.)

 * Ask for a Full installation plus X.  I think that the default is a
   full install (sans X).

 * Ask the system to display files as they are unpacked from the archives.
   (I don't know if this will tell you anything useful, but it will
   give you the reassurance that it's all unpacking in an orderly way.)
   The default, I recall, is to NOT display the files.

When done, pop the CD out and select the menu option to reboot.


  ``I probably don't know what I'm talking about.'' --rauch@math.rice.edu