Hans> I've refrained from posting the last few months as I've 
Hans> tried to get the system up myself.
It would be nice if you have your Message-ID or so for the
reference :-)

By the way, do you read INSTALL.html or INSTALL.txt ?
ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.5.2/macppc/INSTALL.html

Hans> I am installing netbsd 1.5.2 onto the A/U Root partition 
Hans> from a CD which has the gz's of the kernel, all the 

It would be also nice to show the origin (or source) of CD
to make story clear :-)

Hans> I moved through Open Firmware 3 and was able to start 
Hans> ofwboot.xcf: 

Hans> boot cd:ofwboot.xcf

We have two cases for boot command. 
(1) For installation ( when you have not installed yet)
(2) For production boot ( after installation )

Unfortunately, at the time being you need to say which you
want at boot command. Especially for case (1), you need to
type spefically you want to start installation process.

The command for (1) will be 
  boot cd:,ofwboot.xcf netbsd.macppc
(if you are using iso image at
ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/iso/1.5.2/macppccd.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 1133  netbsd  69992448 Sep 21 19:16 macppccd.iso
)
or for case you have install-memory-disk-image at MacOS HFS 
partition,
  boot hd:,ofwboot.xcf netbsd.GENERIC_MD.gz

Hans> I'm successful at getting .elf to load as well, but they 
Hans> both leave me with the same problem:

Hans> boot device: <unknown>
Hans> root device: ??

This means the kernel could not find the root file system.
Possible cases are:
(1) You don't really have the root file system ready to mount.
(2) You have booted from some device which netbsd kernel
    does not recognize with some reason.

I think (1) is the case for this time. You need installation.
---
Makoto Fujiwara, Chiba Japan
http://www.ki.nu/software/NetBSD/iBook2/