it is possible - i've got NetBSD booting from the hard drive on my
PowerComputing machine (OF 1.0.5). I have separate hard drives for the mac
and netbsd side, not sure if you have that option (i think it helps
simplify things).

i'm using the old linuxppc (at least that's where i got it) tool Boot
Variables, which allows you to write different options to the nvram (such
as output device and input device, as the defaults don't let me get into
OF to do anything).

anyway, if you can get into OF, just type "boot scsi/sd@0:0" to boot from
hard disk (change the numbers to whatever disk has your netbsd
installation on it). that's what mine uses anyway. you will probably get
goot messages asking for the root device, just input those (return for a
list of devs) and it should come right up.

to automate this more, you can change the OF variables to always boot that
device or to always boot to OF first to let you decide. i also have a
slick Forth program (which OF uses) that will give you a simple 2-letter
key option to boot either system from the OF prompt, also gotten from an
older linuxppc install. i can send you details on that if you're
interested.


On Thu, 15 Jun 2000, Henry B. Hotz wrote:
> 
> Given the above two problems, how would one set up an OF 1.0.5 
> machine to boot into NetBSD?  I suppose I can create a boot CD-ROM 
> and set up some options so that ofwboot.xcf will cross-boot from the 
> hard disk.  Even if I can solve the auto-eject problem a floppy is 
> just too damn slow for normal use.