Thanks for the help in getting my machine up and running. I'm going to try
compiling a kernel on it just to see how long it takes (2100).

I've had a problem since I started using this, and it seems to be some kind
of a hardware problem. When the machine gets to the PROM prompt it says
that the ethernet hardware address is 08:00:2b:1a:85:f8, but in the bootpd
server log I find this error: 
Feb  1 15:50:34 uhura bootpd[29922]: version 2.4.3
Feb  1 15:50:34 uhura bootpd[29922]: bad addr len from from Ethernet
address 52:41:53:20:80:AC
Feb  1 15:51:27 uhura tftpd[29928]: tftpd: trying to get file:
/tftpboot/nfsnetbsd.ecoff

As long as the bad addr error doesn't occur again (it happens several
times) after the tftpd does it's thing then the link will stay up. When
that error occurs the link dies and doesn't recover. I've put both hardware
addresses into bootptab to see which one works and it's the 08:00 one.

Did someone do some reprogramming of the PROMs before it was given to me?

For those interested, the hack I used to keep the link open long enough to
do the install was enable bootp and tftp in inet.conf, then boot the dec.
By watching the server log with tail -f I could see when the tftp and bootp
connections were made. When I saw that the DEC had gotten to the part about
mounting root via nfs I would kill and bootp processes and HUP inetd to not
use bootp.

I discovered that this was the cause of the server hangs by running ping to
the DEC and watching then it would respond and not respond. As soon as the
bad length error happened the pings would stop :)

-james