>>> allowed me to proceed to attempt to load from ftp. But about half way
>>> through the first tarball, kern-GENERIC.tgz, it choked, complaining
>>> there is no space left on the device. (70 M on root should be enough,
>>> right?)
>>
>> This is usually a sign the the filesystem (in memory or swap, I forget
>> which) that _sysinst_ runs in, is running out of space.
>
> First I'm thinking, how does an empty root file system become full 
> before anything is copied to it? Then I reread that and I think I see 
> something here. It's the memory file system that would be running low, 
> and I could maybe see that.

Memory file system is definitely running out of space.

> I have 36MB RAM in the system.
>
>> Something you might try (check the paths, it's been forever since I've
>> done anything in sysinst) is after you've formatted the root 
>> filesystem,
>> mount it up on /mnt, mkdir /mnt/tmp, rmdir /tmp, and ln -s /mnt/tmp 
>> /tmp.

Tried this as it was written, got the same basic results.

Gerardo pointed out that I might try the internal IDE drive, so I did, 
got the same results.

I noticed, going into the ftp phase, that it was asking for a workspace 
to use for downloading, and the default was

      /usr/INSTALL

Unless I can figure out how to give the memory file system more space, 
that is not going to have any room at all. If I can figure that out, is 
36M of RAM going to give me enough room for the larger sets?

I did try mounting a partition that is not being used for anything else 
at /usr2, making an INSTALL directory in that, and specifying 
/usr2/INSTALL for the download working directory. I even tried a 
partition from the internal IDE drive. Same results -- no space for the 
first download to complete.

Well, that's all the time I have for this project for a while. Thanks 
for the clues. I wish one of them had gotten netBSD into this box. Did 
learn a bit, however.

> ...

--
Joel Rees
     Getting involved in the neighbor's family squabbles is dangerous.
     But if the abusive partner has a habit of shooting through his/her 
roof,
     the guy who lives upstairs is in a bit of a catch-22.