install/47044: bootloader can't find kernel

[kschmitt%roosevelt.edu@localhost]

>Number:         47044
>Category:       install
>Synopsis:       bootloader can't find kernel
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       critical
>Priority:       high
>Responsible:    install-manager
>State:          open
>Class:          support
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Sun Oct 07 17:50:00 +0000 2012
>Originator:     Kyle Schmitt
>Release:        6 RC2
>Organization:
Roosevelt University, CST Department
>Environment:
not available, bootloader can't see kernel
>Description:
On a silver core2-duo based silver iMac, or Shuttle XS35V2 (Intel NM10 
chipset), the install goes through normally, except that the drives had to be 
zeroed in another environment first (dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/<blah>) first, to 
avoid an error claiming it could not open the device.  Normal configurations 
were done (enable sshd, set root password, etc), but only things the installer 
does (nothing on the shell).

After reboot, the boot loader tries all of it's combinations, and gives up.  
dev lists the devices (iMac values shown, but aside from disc size, they were 
identical on the shuttle), but ls returns an error.
> dev
disk hd0 size 232 GB
 hd0a(unknown) hd0b(unknown) hd0c(unknown
disk fd0
 fd0a
default hd0a

>ls
ls : No suck file or directory

Attempting to use the bootloader from the install CD is also unsuccessful.

If it's at all important, prior to attempting these installations, the iMac had 
OSX 10.6 installed on it's drive, and the shuttle had FreeBSD installed.
>How-To-Repeat:
Install NetBSD on core2-duo based silver iMac, or Shuttle XS35V2 (Intel NM10 
chipset), let the insaller install the bootcode, finish normally

reboot.
>Fix: