Ok, here's what I found out:

The problem in question happens also when obtaining the filesets
via ftp, using the 1.4.1-1.4.3 installers.  What seems to be
happening is that even when no d partition is defined for the
target disk, the installer mounts something anyway (probably just
any few unallocated sectors from the a partition), resulting in
a tiny /usr filesystem being mounted instead of /usr just being
a directory in the "a" partition filesystem.  Thus, as soon as
stuff in base.tgz that goes under the /usr tree gets unpacked,
this bogus filesystem fills up.  Solution: you _must_ define
a separate partition for /usr .  Yeah, I know, it is what should
be done in the first place, it's just that in some cases is not
as convenient as a single partition with everything on it.
Oh well.


John Taylor wrote:
> I had the same problem using nfs w/1.4.3.  For a quick workaround, just use
> the 1.4.2 installer with the 1.4.3 files.
> 
> I believe that this is an error in the code, but I've yet to actually look at
> it.
> John Taylor

-- 
Carlos Murillo-Sanchez    email:  cem14@cornell.edu  
428 Phillips Hall, Electrical Engineering Department
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853