>The suggested partition would require the MBR to tell DOS about at least
>three partitions:
>
>        0: 200MB of type "NetBSD"
>        1: 3GB of type DOS Primary
>        2: <n> of type "NetBSD"
>
>and NetBSD wants to have only one NetBSD-type partition.  However, I don't
>think NetBSD actually checks that all of the NetBSD filesystems are within
>NetBSD MBR-partitions; if that's the case, then you can just point the extra 
>NetBSD native partitions to the additional space after MBR-partition 1.


I'm stuck with lots of dual- or triple-boot machines.  

On those, it'd make more sense to set up "small" primary MBR
partitions for DOS/ NT/Linux/whatever -- half a gig at most --
followed by BIOS-addressable partitions wiht "user" data.  That way
you dont have to reinstall and recover everything when your M$
registry bite the dust.  Those partitions can be secondary partitions
as long as they're BIOS- addressable.

Using a secondary partition for the main, non-root BSD partition frees
up a primary partiton without letting another OS scribble over the
NetBSD partition.  Which would help a lot for multiboot setups for
other real OSes (FreeBSD, Linux).  Assuming you're under the upper
limit for your controller's BIOS addressibility, that is.
Just a thought...