Hi !

> Boot: [netbsd][-s][-a][-d] :-
> boot: client IP address: 129.22.56.15
> bootparamd: 'whoami' call failed
> le(0,0,0,0): Unknown error: code 72
> Boot: [onetbsd][-s][-a][-d] :-
> le_put: xmit error, buf 0
> Boot: [netbsd][-s][-a][-d] :-
> boot: client IP address: 129.22.56.15
> bootparamd: 'whoami' call failed
> le(0,0,0,0): Unknown error: code 60
>    .
>    .
>    .
> 
> My questions:  Is this thing actually booting?  (At least halfway?)  Just a
> Yes to that question will make me happy.
Sorry... looks like the machine is unable to get its IP from your server... do you have the hp in your rarp table ? Is reverse ARP (RARP) compiled into your kernel ? if yes you have to make an entry fou the hp in your arp table ( use the arp command I think... ) so that your Linux box knows both, IP and hardware Address of your hp.

> Making a swap area on an NFS exported drive:  Do I just need to export and
> empty directory?
you export a single file.

> Does network traffic effect this boot situation?  Does this box need to
> have an HP-IB drive attached to it?  (I got some error when the drives were
> not turned on once but they have gone away now.).
you need no drive. the machine is able to act without any disk.
 
> rpc.bootparamd is giving this in debug mode:
> whoami got question for 129.22.56.15
> This is host snowhite.eeap.cwru.edu
> Returning snowhite   (none)    127.0.0.1
 exactly what I meant above: you linux box doesn't know the hardware address of your hp. the hp makes a rarp-broadcast to retrieve it's IP address, the answer of your host indicates that it doesn't know anything about the hp.

bye
Michael