I have been able to boot a number of variants of netbsd over a serial
console (including the original 1.2 version, as well as GENERIC-22 and
GENERIC_78).  Using a kernel provided by Takashi Hamada, which includes
video patches from Michael Zucca, I can boot using the powerbook's 
keyboard and LCD display.

However, it hasn't quite worked perfectly.  I have installed NetBSD
on an external Quantum drive (I've used two different ones -- a CTS160S,
which has an Apple label, and an LP240S GM240S01X).  From time to time
there is a misread of the disk, which can cause an assorment of errors.
>From what I've picked up from this list, there are known problems with
the ncrscsi driver and Quantum disks.  The suggested alternative is to
use the SBC driver, of which I've tried a few (including the SBC kernels
included with the -22 and _78 generic kernels).  In all cases, the 
boot ends with a panic:

    Automatic boot in progress: starting file system checks.
    /dev/rsd1a: file system is clean; not checking
    sbc0: can not transfer more data
    sbc0: aborting, but phase=DATA_OUT (reset)
    sbc0: reset SCSI bus for TID=1 LUN=0
    panic: ncr5380_scsi_cmd: polled request, abort failed
    Stopped at      _Debugger+0x6:  unlk    a6

Unfortunately, after the panic the root partition has been modified in
such a way that neither the installer nor the booter can access it.  The
only solution I've found is to run mkfs and reload everything from scratch.

Perhaps different options are needed for the SBC driver for a PB180?
(At boot time it says sbc0 at obio0: options=1<PDMA>.)  Or maybe it's
not quite that easy.  Anyway, if anyone has any hints I'd appreciate
hearing them.

--Andy Fyfe
bandr@best.com