> I don't know what to say.  I would have thought that NetBSD would do
> what you tell it in /etc/fstab.  Maybe the fact that there *is* a
> *different* partition that comes up as "b" in NetBSD somehow take
> precedence over the fact that you told it to swap on the "e"
> partition?

Sorry to confuse. I should have been clearer before in my last email.

root and swap were wd0b and wd0e but I've repartitioned and reinstalled, 
so now they show up as wd0a and wd0b

I've now got

   /dev/wd0b none swap sw 0 0

in /etc/fstab but I still get the following on bootup:

   swapctl: /dev/wd0b: Device not configured
   ...
   /etc/rc: WARNING: No swap space configured!

Cheers
David