On 2004-08-12 dennisjscott@yahoo.com wrote:

> I am affraid I don't understand what you are
> suggesting.  Less /kern/msgbuf?  What exactly does
> that mean.
>
> do you mean boot with args in the hpcboot?

  Less is a pager, to view files (like more).  Looking at the packing
lists for the sysinst kernel memory disk I don't see less or more on
there, so it may only be in the installed system.  I can guess from you
question that you are new to unix?  In that case you can ignore everything
I said.  Instead, copy the data to the dos CF card and post the results to
the list.  The following command sequence should accomplish this:

First exit sysinst from a fresh boot (there should be a menu option for
this) then type:
mount_msdos /dev/wd1e /mnt <return> (if this errors, stop)
ls /mnt <return> (check that this is the drive you expect, else stop)
cp /kern/msgbuf /mnt <return>
disklabel /dev/wd0 >& /mnt/dl <return>
fdisk /dev/wd0 >& /mnt/fd <return>
umount /mnt <return>

  You will then have the files msgbuf, dl, and fd on the CF card.  Post
these files to the list.  If you want you can wait a bit before doing this
to see if someone else knows what the problem might be without this info.

  Next time you try to partition the disk you are installing to, I would
recommend allocating just a single partition "/" for all of the netbsd
portion of the disk.  Swap has a good chance of significantly decreasing
the life of your CF card due to potentially writing frequently.  Once the
system is installed and booted: add ",noatime,nodevmtime" immediately
after the "rw" in /etc/fstab and do the following:
cd /var/log
rm wtmp wtmpx utmp utmpx lastlog lastlogx
then reboot.  This will also reduce unnecessary writes significantly
(particularly the /etc/fstab editing).

  The NetBSD Guide at http://www.netbsd.org/guide/en/ has some basic info
about NetBSD that might help you get started (though most likely will not
help with the immediate problem you are having).

Matthew Orgass
darkstar@city-net.com