>My guess is that IRQ 9 isnt mapped through the PCIC on this hardware.
>Sure enough, Linux (on a similar, slightly older Vaio) uses IRQ 3.
>(then again,  perhaps its a cardbus-in-pcmcia-compatiblity-mode bug).

Linux actually probes the PCIC controller for valid IRQs, that's
why it works.  We can't do that because interrupts are turned off
during autoconfiguration (well, there is apparantly a way ... but
it involves interrupt stuff I don't quite understand yet).

>I'm stumped. How do people install NetBSD on laptops like this?
>(FWIW, linux installs like a charm...)

Build a working kernel on another system :-/

--Ken