Dave said >> and bertram replied > :
> > I notice I cannot mount the newly created partition as /
> 
> Since you gave "ra0*" as the name of the root-partition, the swap-partition
> (ra0b) is mounted on /, thus you can't mount another partition on /.
> 
> > I have tried to copy boot and gennetbsd to ra0a using the following which it does not complain about:-
> > 
> > # cp boot ra0a
> > # cp netbsd ra0a
> 
> You just copied these files within the same directory to another name.
> what you want to do is:
> 
> 	# mount /dev/ra0a /mnt
> 	# cp boot /mnt
> 	# cp netbsd /mnt
> 	# mkdir /mnt/usr
> 	...
> 
> > ( also tried #cp boot /dev/ra0a  etc.)
> 
> You can't copy to the device directly. You first need to mount the
> device into your filesystem. Then you can access the mounted device's
> filesystem and copy files into it.
> 
> > When  I try to reboot the system with
> > 
> > >>> B DUA0
> > 
> > 2..1..0
> > 
> > I get the first line :
> > 
> > howto...
> > 
> > then it says :-
> > boot failed, errno 21 (Unknown error: code 12)
> 
> bootblocks can't find the /boot program since it's not yet copied
> into the filesystem in ra0a.

BUT what I am experiencing is a little off:
With my ra0a partition set at 20000, ra0b set at 40000, and ra0e set for the
rest of RD54, in the miniroot, I end up running out of space with /dev/ra0a
mounted on /mnt so I can't create and copy over /usr files, the basic
files in / (mounted b partition as part of startup).

How do I handle this?? do I rebuild the disk with a bigger a partition?
I do a df and get the stats - does not seem to make sense to me,
I figure I have crated a big enough partition - about a meg,
and have not put that much into it!!
I am working on attempt number 25 to do this install, Thanks to Gunnar
I am almost there....the FAQ on http://www.bitcon.no/~gunnar/vaxbsd
has certainly helped but I still seem to be fumbling!
Help again folks Please!
bob