Did you ever try checking that ``rc_configured=YES'' was in your
/etc/rc.conf?


I was aware that you want to run multiple OS's.  However, assuming that
any essential data is backed up from the computer, there is *no*harm* in
wiping out the other OS installations temporarily.  (You said that the
comptuer is new, so it shouldn't have much, if anything, of value on
it yet.)

Doing a ``give the whole machine to NetBSD'' is slightly simpler and so
there is less room for misunderstandings (either on your part when you do
the install, or on our part when we try to figure out what you did/saw).

I'm sorry if what I said sounded like ``Forget the other OS's that you
want to run.''  While *I'm* perfectly happy to live in NetBSD all of the
time, I wouldn't insist that others do so.  Once the install problems are
sorted out, you should naturally repartition and reinstall the way that
you originally intended.

What you describe after booting is *not* the normal NetBSD installation.
Either LSL sold you a weird CD, or you told the installer something weird
during installation.  If we can eliminate the latter and things still
fail, then the next step is to try a different CD source (preferably, one
that has an interest in promoting NetBSD).

If you won't try giving the whole machine over to NetBSD to simplify
things and try to isolate the problem, then: Buy a CD from some other
source (or bite the bullet, download the 100MB ISO, and burn your own).
If you buy from another source, Bob's Budget CD's (Bob Nestor) has
provided me with good CD's in the past; The NetBSD Mission and Wasabi are
two others that I'd turn to if I were going to buy a NetBSD CD.


Displaying the files as they are unpacked from the CD shouldn't greatly
affect the speed.


Downloading CD images on a 56K modem *is* practical---I've done it, and
I've even downloaded install sets on a 33kbps (or was that 14.4?) link.
But, no one's going to force you to download a 100MB file if you don't
want to.  (^&


Lastly, for the record: No, I doubt that what you got boots every
supported platform.  LSL's page suggests that their 4 CDR set only has
i386 binaries.  Besides, not all platforms *can* boot CD's, last I heard.
(Though Tracy Di Marco White has put up a couple of multiboot CD images
that, between them, boot/install about 15 architectures, I think.  Those,
of course, weigh in at about 600MB each, instead of 100MB.)


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