> ok, i have now compiled a lit of problems i am having at the moment, thank
> you for your help.
> 
> 1. when typing "ps" there are a few errors that seem to revolve around the
> others when they choose, sometime the error is Segmentation Fault,
> sometimes its Illegal instruction, sometime not an error at all, mostly
> when there are errors there is a lot of core dumping. 
> 
> 2. when typing "df" segmentation fault. 
> 
> 3. when typing gcc, g++.... illegal instruction - core dump. 
> 
> 4. when typing ps aux .....lets just say it doesnt get past 3 prcesses.... 

What kind of computer are you using? It sounds like it has a 68LC040 in it.
There are known problems with this chip (which give the symptoms you see).

What version are you using?

> Questions. 
> 
> 1. what is a core and why is it dumped? 

A copy of the running program when the program did something wrong. The
term dates back to when computers had magnetic rings for memory. It's
dumped so that a programmer can come along and figure out what went wrong.

> 2. how do i format a floppy to NetBSD usage? 

800K floppy support is a work-in-progress. I don't think the new driver
has made it into the -current source tree. 1440K floppies aren't supported
at the moment.

> 3. what is an illegal instruction, and segmentaion fault? 

An illegal instruction error is where a program tried to execute a
machine-language instruction which was undefined. An m68k machine
instruction takes the form of a number of 16-bit integers. Parts of
these integers say what's to be done, and parts supply data. If the
parts which indicate what's to be done aren't in the set of valid
things to do, the chip signals an error, and the program stops.

A segmentation fault is where the program has tried to access memory
which isn't valid.

Take care,

Bill