Hi Graham,

> Can the /root and /usr (and swap!) filesystems be mouted on the same 
> harddisk partition ??

Root and /usr fs, yes. Just install the sets manually. But not swap,
unless you use a vnd (a file which acts like a disk).

Alternatively you can divide one AHDI partition in two or more
NetBSD partitions with disklabel(8).
 
> And the swap partition if it has to be a seperate
> partition

The swap partition can be a separate NetBSD partition (not necessarily
a separate AHDI partition) or a virtual disk (see vnconfig(8)).
  
> can I "share" the same partition as my linux swap ?

Yes, you can, but then it must be a separate AHDI partition, because
Linux does not know anything about NetBSD disk pack labels. The easiest
way is to change the partition ID of the swap partition to either SWP
or NBS. Alternatively, create a disk label, and move the swappartition
to partition b (partition a is the root-fs, b the swap partition, c is
the whole disk).

> The INSTALL File talks about compatibility with Linux ... what exactly ?

??? Did you read that in the BUGS section? :-)

> I know that I cannot use the same filesystem but will a NetBSD system 
> execute ELF or a.out binaries ??

I think, only the i386 port will do that.
 
> Will I be able to mount ext2 and minix partitions ??

Yes, if you write the drivers for those filesystems.
 
> Indeed can I mount GEM partitions ?

Yes, a driver for gemdos filesystems and msdos filesystems already
exists.

> Finally , I have only be able to find binary distributions for atari ,
> are there source for the kernels etc anywhere ??

/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/tar_files/src/*.tar.gz (kernel in sys.tar.gz).
The sources for the SUP utility are in .../tar_files/othersrc/sup.tar.gz.
SUP is the easiest way to keep your source tree up to date.

Unlike Linux, NetBSD has one source tree for all platforms. The atari
specific sources (e.g. hw drivers) are in src/sys/arch/atari/* .


Waldi