The machine is a S900 with dual 604e's at 200mhz and 96 MB RAM.
2 internal IBM hard drives recognized correctly by kernel
internal 1GB jaz drive
OF 1.0.5
 input-device kbd (not default)
 output-device /bandit/IMS,tt128mb (not default - 4MB TwinTurbo)
 boot-command begin ['] boot catch 1000 ms cr again (allows drives time
to spin up)

I wonder if disconnecting the internal jaz would help - I can boot
directly into NetBSD, and after transferring all the base sets, am able
to untar and begin to set up the config files, but invariably end up
locked up with the mesh error. 

Tom