Thanks for the help, Brian, and David ... I now am successfully
booting two VS2000s -- however, I have yet to get swapping to work
correctly, so the machines run for up to ten to twenty minutes before
crapping out ... 

Configuration as of today:

'throber' is a 4-processor Solbourne running OS/MP 4.1C (99.95% the
same as SunOS 4.1.3 but with SMP that doesn't suck (a feat Sun has yet
to perform...))

'ka410' is a KA410 :) 

Here's what I get during the boot process...

    >>> b esa0



    -ESA0

    Nboot
    : /netbsd
    boot: client IP address: 205.178.12.223
    boot: client name: ka410.cluon.com
    root addr=205.178.12.247 path=/netboot/1/root
    675840+35840+70136 start 0x98bbe
    Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
    The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.

    NetBSD 1.2D (VS) #9: Thu Apr 24 07:42:40 MEST 1997
    bertram@:/v/vax/src/sys/arch/vax/compile/VS

    realmem = 6160384
    avail mem = 3592192
    Using 300 buffers containing 307200 bytes of memory.
    backplane0 (root)
    cpu0 at backplane0: VAXstation 2000
    vsbus0 at backplane0
    device dc at vsbus0 unsupported
    device dc (xmit) at vsbus0 unsupported
    le0 at vsbus0: address 08:00:2b:0f:ae:b0
    le0: 32 receive buffers, 8 transmit buffers
    ncr0 at vsbus0: scsi-id 7
    scsibus0 at ncr0: 8 targets
    hdc0 at vsbus0
    command 0x24 completed with status 0x38
    command 0x24 completed with status 0x38
    rd0 at hdc0 drive 0
    rd0: command 0x24 completed with status 0x38
    command 0x24 completed with status 0x38
    command 0x5d completed with status 0x28
    0, 0 MB, 524288 LBN, 0 cyl, 0 head, 0 sect/track
    command 0x25 completed with status 0x38
    command 0x25 completed with status 0x38
    boot device: le0
    nfs_boot: using network interface 'le0'
    nfs_boot: client_addr=0xcdb20cdf
    nfs_boot: server_addr=0xcdb20cf7
    nfs_boot: hostname=ka410.cluon.com
    root on throbber.cluon.com:/netboot/1/root
    swap on throbber.cluon.com:/netboot/1/swap
    root file system type: nfs
    Automatic boot in progress: starting file system checks.
    setting tty flags
    starting network
    hostname: ka410.cluon.com
    configuring network interfaces:.
    add host ka410.cluon.com: gateway localhost
    add net default: gateway 205.178.12.254

I added a couple of 'echo's to the Appropriate places to make sure
what was failing ... 

    About to swapctl
    Bad system call - core dumped
    Just swapctled

Things are going to suck, I can just TELL :) 

    starting system logger
    starting rpc daemons: portmap.
    creating runtime link editor directory cache.
    checking for core dump...

Here's the contents of ka410's /etc/fstab (I replaced
throbber.cluon.com with bootserver for readability here...)


    bootserver:/netboot/1/root  /       nfs     rw 0 0 
    bootserver:/netboot/1/swap  none    swap    sw,nfsmntpt=/swap.file
    bootserver:/netboot/usr     /usr    nfs     rw 0 0 
    bootserver:/netboot/home    /home   nfs     rw 0 0


on the NFS server before boot-time, /netboot/1/root/swap.file is an
empty directory;  after swapctl runs, from the NFS server side,
root/swap.file is still an empty directory, but from the VAX side,
it's a 16Meg suitable-for-swapping file ... (mode is -rw------T)

Ideas?