> i would like to add in some code to check if i am in b&w
>before i boot, ive tried to boot with thousands of colors on far too many
>times now ;)

Why?  That's only half the problem, you'd still have to manually set the 
colors back when you rebooted MacOS.  A much simpler solution is the 
"DepthMaster" Extension available on InfoMac. It allows you to set color 
depth on an application by application basis.  On my system I have it 
configured to switch to B&W for the Booter (which works with all versions 
of the Booter). Now when I boot into NetBSD it switches automatically to 
B&W mode before going to the Booter. If I abort the boot or when I reboot 
MacOS it automatically switches back to my preselected color depth.  I 
haven't played in the Color (or is it Monitor) Control Panel for months 
and have never missed getting into NetBSD because I was in the wrong mode.

-bob