[Crossposted, and follow-ups set to port-macppc.  You will probably
get better replies about Open Firmware there.]

Rem P Roberti <remegius@comcast.net> writes:

> Thanks to Gilbert and all the others who have responded to my attempts 
> to install NetBSD on my iBook.  Here is the current state of affairs.
>
> 1) Downloaded macppccd.iso (145,472 KB) from one of the US mirrors.
> 2) Burned it to CD.
> 3) Got to the Open Firmware prompt and determined that the Open Firmware 
> is version 3.
> 4) Attempted to boot the CD with a couple of the examples in the doc 
> with no success.

It sounds like Open Firmware cannot find the ofwboot file from the CD
(or that ofwboot cannot find the kernel).  The boot syntax of Open
Firmware is a bit confusing, and it is not always easy to guess what
partition numbers (or whatever they are called) to use.  You could try
the dev (similar to cd) and dir (similar to ls) commands from the Open
Firmware prompt to check where the ofwboot file is, and then pass this
location to the boot command.  Alternatively, you could copy the
ofwboot.xcf file to a HFS filesystem on your hard disk and try to boot
from there.

The macppc FAQ (http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/macppc/faq.html) contains a
section about Open Firmware commands.

-- Johan