It works!

Specify swap, remove tabs, end with /, and rpc.bootparamd works.
Ensure all files in NFS partition are owned by root & make
sure init is rwx.

I do recall Linux rpc.bootparamd no working too well when there
were tabs in /etc/bootparms.  Maybe Solaris also?  It was
Jonathan's comment about removing tabs...

It still won't complete /sbin/init, but I feel I am not far off.
At least it appears I don't have any more hardware/network problems!

> >> Are you sure? that sounds very suspicious to me. What is your subnet
> >> and subnetmask?  What broadcast address are you using?
> 
> >How is that specified through rpc.bootparamd?
> 
> No, I meant what is it *really*?  Is 131.181.255.255 really your local
> broadcast address? It looks to me like the kernel should really be
> using 255.255.255.255 at that point instead.  Confusing. But I'd make
> sure an rpc.bootparamd server is running, that it knows about your
> client (Ultrix doesn't need this!) and then fixing whatever causes the
> machine 131.181.17.81 to send an ICMP unreachable in response to a
> broadcast.

It still baffles me, how NetBSD chose to broadcast on 131.181.255.255.

Regards,
Greg