I tried your suggestion of putting the -current kernel on the msdos
partition of the cf card and I got the same hang in the kernel boot
messages:
[. . .]
boot device: <unknown>
root device:
I think maybe the hang results from changes in the kernel, see
http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-xen/2008/04/10/msg003557.html. also,
hpcboot seems to be able to find kernels on netbsd / just as well as
on the msdos partition of the cf card.
More ideas on how to get the boot to continue on a z50 with -current?
If you can pass parameters to the kernel through the bootloader, try appending "root=wd0" or "root=/dev/wd0" or "root=wd0a" or "bootdev=/dev/wd0a", etc. to the arguments, depending on where you installed NetBSD. But, I'm just guessing wildly; I've never passed any parameters to the kernel through the bootloader, I just seem to remember hpcboot having that option somewhere in its tabs, and this may be the kind of thing they are discussing in that thread.