> > Checking special files and directories.
> > missing: ./var/db/kvm.db
> 
> This gets created at boot time by /etc/rc.d/sysdb (it runs the
> kvm_mkdb program).  Do you have a kernel in /netbsd for kvm_mkdb
> to read?  I don't know exactly how a cobalt boots...

NetBSD actually boots from an ext2 file system. There is also a copy of the same
kernel at /netbsd. I rebooted the machine just to see if it would create it. I
think I may have just found the culprit. I get this error when I boot up:

kvm_mkdb: machdep.booted_kernel: the value is not available: No such file or
directory

Because the machine is actually booted form the gzipped kernel on the ext2fs
partition, the machdep.booted_kernel value must not be set. It appears that
kvm_mkdb is then experiencing an error and not completing its task. The kvm_mkdb
man page states that kvm_mkdb uses /netbsd by default, so I just ran kvm_mkdb
from the command line and now /var/db/kvm.db is there. Thank you for sending me
in the right direction.

Bryan