http://www.netbsd.org/ports/macppc/faq.html#drive-spinup

This might work for you
http://www.netbsd.org/ports/macppc/SystemDisk-tutorial/of105patch2.txt

add to nvram
: wBoot begin boot-device ['] $boot catch drop 
." -Waiting for boot-device" cr  d# 500 ms key? until ;\


setenv boot-command wBoot

On Thu, 2007-08-16 at 15:11 -0700, DataZap wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> There was a lightning storm a few weeks ago and my xserve went down. I
> was not able to get it to do anything until yesterday. After taking
> the
> lid off, and pushing some buttons I was able to get it to at least
> show
> the apple can't boot screen. It still didn't seem to do what it was
> supposed to, so I held down the option-apple-O-R (I think?). I could
> then
> get to the open firmware with option-apple-O-F.
> 
> I then put into the openfirmware:
> setenv boot-device hd2:,\ofwboot.xcf
> setenv boot-file hd:0,/netbsd
> setenv boot-command boot
> setenv auto-boot? false
> reset-all
> 
> When it came back up, I typed boot and it booted NetBSD, so I did a
> shutdown and when the open firmware came up I set auto-boot? to true
> and
> then reset-all, but it wouldn't boot. So, I cycled the power and held
> down
> option-apple-O-F, then typed boot and it booted. So, I thought maybe
> the
> hard drive was not spun up when it tried to boot. Then tried shutdown
> -r
> now, but once again the screen went black. I have googled and look
> through
> the archives of this list, but I can't seem to find a solution. Any
> ideas?
> 
> Thanks,
> Al
> 
> 
> 
>