Finally got some time to play with netBSD...

>> I can't find the text I got the instructions from (it was some netBSD file,
>> but PC and oldish), but I may well have made a mistake.
>> I know when I first tried MAKEDEV tty, I got "Command not found" so I
>> thought if I gave the path to where I'd seen MAKEDEV it might run. It
>> seemed to run, and then all the troubles started !
>
>Where were you when you did it? Were you in the installer? If in NetBSD,
>in which directory?

I was in netBSD, but can't remember the directory !

>I think all you need to reinstall is the etc.tgz package, and you can do
>it in single user mode.

Can I do this from the Mac side, as in the initial setup ?

>Start in single-user mode, and do an fsck on all of your partitions.
>Either we or the fac can help with this if you have questions. Then "mount
>-u /" and fire up vipw (I'm assuming /usr is in /, otherwise you need to
>mount it too). Look and see what your password line looks like. You might
>see an obvious bug.

I did this and didn't spot anything obvious. It seems to me (check my logic
here !) that if, as happens, I get "incorrect login" as soon as I enter
either a username or root, then the password file probably isn't even being
checked (I'm never asked for a password). So something is screwy further
upstream, as it were. Maybe login ? If that's so, would etc.tgz still be
the right package to reinstall ?

Also, is there any way to gracefully get out of netBSD when you can't login
? I'm guessing there isn't.

thanks for all the help

Paul