Here's how I finally managed to install (G3 Lombard Powerbook):

 * set up a BOOTP + tftp + NFS server as per the diskless HOWTO. You
   don't need to install a complete filesystem: just export / with the
   installation ramdisk renamed `netbsd'

 * netboot into kernel + sysinst and do an FTP install

 * this will squish your whole disk (it did with 1.5_ALPHA2 anyway)
   but not make it bootable: upon booting OpenFirmware can't find
   anything bootable on the disk and ends up trying to netboot.

   You thus have to boot from an NFS-mounted kernel and tell it to
   mount / from disk rather than by NFS. I didn't find the procedure
   in the installation docs, so here goes:

   1. from OF say

      > boot enet:,ofwboot.elf -a

   2. the `-a' tells ofwboot to prompt for the name of the kernel; at
      the Boot: prompt say

      Boot: netbsd -a

   3. the kernel will then prompt you for a source for the root
      filesystem; say wd0 (or whatever your disk is called). 



>>>>> "mw" == Michael Wolfson <mw@costello.cnf.cornell.edu> writes:

  mw> macppc/snapshot/20000620-1.5/installation/netbsd.ram.gz

thanks ... could I suggest that this be included in the /installation
section of each release? 


  ecm> PS: the kernel goes into reverse video halfway through the
  ecm> boot, after which the screen becomes pretty much unreadable on
  ecm> the powerbook. Is it possible to disable that?

  mw> It shouldn't be unreadable. AFAIK, to disable it, you need to
  mw> compile a new kernel. 

well, it draws black text on a black background, so it's pretty close
to unreadable :-)  The kernel in the ramdisk doesn't have the same
problem. 

-- 
Eric Marsden                          <URL:http://www.laas.fr/~emarsden/>