> through the install program ?   I tried the following today, and am unable
> to boot into NetBSD (1.5, btw):
strange - i my first attempt i've done everything manually except
disklabel 
> 
> 1. Made the boot floppies, and booted with them. 
yes
> 2. Created a NetBSD partition (on wd0), disklabel-ed it, and mounted them
> under /mnt and /mnt/usr. 
or any other partition map you like.
> 3. Then I mounted the partition where I had the  .tgz files (base.tgz etc)
> under /mnt2. 
> 4. After this, I untarred those files to /mnt.
with xzpvf
> 5. Then, cd /dev && ./MAKEDEV all. 
> 6. And: /usr/mdec/installboot -v /usr/mdec/biosboot.sym /dev/rwd0a 
> 7. reboot.
> 
yes exactly. must work :)

> I use GRUB to boot my OSes, and I gave it the proper commands (root,
> chainloader, boot), but it refuses to boot.  I get some screen output like
> "^_@%"  and the machine hangs.

did not use grub but i think you should reinstall grub bootblocks after
installboot