Um, it looks like you have the NetBSD disklabel assigning partition
a: to the FreeBSD / partition.  I think that you should be able to
boot NetBSD from a partition other than a:, but it is usually put
on a:.

There is no requirement that partition a: have a lower start-position
than any other subsequent partition.  (I.e., you don't need to
physically move FreeBSD's partition in order to do this.)  Nor do
NetBSD and FreeBSD have to agree on the letter assignments.

Since you didn't say whether you installed NetBSD manually or
through sysinst, nor which version of NetBSD (the port that you're
using---i386---has been around since day one of NetBSD), I'm not
sure what else to say at this point.  I'd think that sysinst should
be smart enough to handle any reasonable configuration.

(Note that you say you are booting NetBSD, but you report "/dev/rw1f"
(I assume you mean /dev/rwd1f) is having problems and as being mounted
as /usr---but your partition table shows f: as being /usr for FreeBSD.
So either your FreeBSD filesystem is messed up or you are incorrectly
trying to use a FreeBSD /usr partition as a NetBSD /usr partition.)


I have dual-booted NetBSD and FreeBSD (and on the same machine and
at the same time had a working GNU/LINUX distribution)---from one
disk.  I'm pretty sure that I had both BSDs thinking of themselves
as being on disklabel partition a:, but can't say for sure anymore.
I didn't have to do anything special to make it all work, except
for a hiccup where that FreeBSD beta-release did not include a
necessary file for install (so I wound up installing via FTP).

You shouldn't have to bend, twist, or force anything to get the
two to live happily together, as I recall.


Perhaps others will have more thoughts, or perhaps you can provide
more information.  Good luck.

-- 
  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about."  http://www.olib.org/~rkr/