I apologize for responding after such a long time.. but I don't normally read
this list.  

I think you are very much on the right track, but I think it's possible that
you are booting, but the console isn't coming up, meaning you can't see your
own progress.

Typically in this situation, you need to figure out a way to somehow signal you
about what is going on.  On some machines, you might be able to blink an LED in
a specific pattern.  Maybe you can blink the analog light on a controller?

---
Tim Rightnour <root@garbled.net>
NetBSD: Free multi-architecture OS http://www.netbsd.org/
Genecys: Open Source 3D MMORPG: http://www.genecys.org/