installboot problems with raidframe - amd64

[yancm%sdf.org@localhost]

I'm struggling with an issue that I cannot seem to sort with
google and the guides and wikis...

upon trying to boot from a raidframe raid0 set, I receive:

  NetBSD/x86 ffsv2 Primary Bootstrap
  Boot Failed (errno 2): Can't open /boot

1) /boot does exist on raid0a (as does netbsd)
2) I am able to break out of a boot cd boot menu and boot
using something like > boot raid0a:netbsd

I have a raidframe raid1 array with 2 160G disks, raid0 which
appears healthy.

raidctl -s raid0
  Components:
           /dev/wd0a: optimal
           /dev/wd1a: optimal
  No spares.
  Component label for /dev/wd0a:
     Row: 0, Column: 0, Num Rows: 1, Num Columns: 2
     Version: 2, Serial Number: 20191223, Mod Counter: 808464996
     Clean: No, Status: 0
     sectPerSU: 128, SUsPerPU: 1, SUsPerRU: 1
     Queue size: 100, blocksize: 512, numBlocks: 312574848
     RAID Level: 1
     Autoconfig: Yes
     Root partition: Soft
     Last configured as: raid0

This was migrated from an earlier raid array on 120G disks which
was working.

I followed the guide to set up this raid array...
One question I had was the initial disklabel on the underlying
disks...I set as:

disklabel -r -e -I wd1 (or 0)
[snip]
  5 partitions:
  #        size    offset     fstype [fsize bsize cpg/sgs]
   a: 312579760      2048       RAID                     #
   c: 312579760      2048     unused      0     0        #
   d: 312581808         0     unused      0     0        #

also  disklabel -r -e raid0
[snip]
  16 partitions:
  #        size    offset     fstype [fsize bsize cpg/sgs]
   a:   2097152         0     4.2BSD      0     0     0  #
   b:   4194304   2097153       swap                     #
   d: 312574848         0     unused      0     0        #
   e:  31457280   6291458     4.2BSD      0     0     0  #
   f:  10485760  37748739     4.2BSD      0     0     0  #
   g:   2097152  48234500     4.2BSD      0     0     0  #
   h:  20971520  50331653     4.2BSD      0     0     0  #
   i:  62914560  71303174     4.2BSD      0     0     0  #
   j:  20971520 134217735     4.2BSD      0     0     0  #
   k: 157385588 155189256     4.2BSD      0     0     0  #

Yes, a: is the root partition

The guide used a 63 offset, but one of the wikis recommended 2048...
Q1 is this offset causing my issues?

I've tried installboot with the following options (neither worked):
installboot -t raid -v -o timeout=8 /dev/rwd1a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv2
and
installboot -v -o timeout=8 /dev/rwd1a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv2
And yes, I did this for both rwd1a and rwd0a...
Q2: DO I need to add an offset to installboot?

As always, help appreciated...
--gene