> This resulted in the only system that ever actually loaded a kernal.  I
> then got the exception problem that others have reported with the
> latest miniroot.  In later iterations, I did not do this, as disklabel
> appears to be intended to take care of this itself (?).

You're closer than you think.   Try unplugging the ethernet connection
and plugging in an AUI terminator or connecting yourself to an empty
segment.   There's a problem with interrupt vector initialization, and
you're probably getting a packet in the middle of it which is causing
the panic.

You didn't tell us what kind of machine you're installing to.  If this
doesn't work out, dump some more information our way.  Andrew seems to
have suffered through more of this than Jonathan or I, but Jonathan
and I have done more kernel hacking, so among the group we should be
able to get you going.

			       _MelloN_