here's what i ended up doing.

cd /usr
cvs login
cvs -d $CVSROOT update -PAd src
cd /usr/src
./build.sh -m hpcarm -T /usr/cross tools
cd /usr/src/sys/arch/hpcarm/conf/
/usr/cross/bin/nbconfig IPAQ
cd ../compile/IPAQ/
/usr/cross/bin/nbmake-hpcarm depend
/usr/cross/bin/nbmake-hpcarm

seems to work except for the following

/usr/cross/bin/arm--netbsdelf-gcc -x assembler-with-cpp  -D_LOCORE 
-I../../../../../../lib/libkern/arch/arm -Dhpcarm -Darm32 -I../../. 
-I../../../../../../arch -I../../../../../.. -nostdinc 
-DSAEGPIO_BASE="0x49000000" -DLKM -DDIAGNOSTIC -DCONSPEED="0x4b00" 
-DMAXUSERS=32 -D_KERNEL -D_KERNEL_OPT  -nostdinc -isystem 
/usr/src/destdir.hpcarm/usr/include  -c -traditional-cpp 
../../../../../../lib/libkern/arch/i386/byte_swap_2.S
../../../../../../lib/libkern/arch/i386/byte_swap_2.S: Assembler messages:
../../../../../../lib/libkern/arch/i386/byte_swap_2.S:50: Error: bad 
instruction `movzwl 4(%esp),%eax'
../../../../../../lib/libkern/arch/i386/byte_swap_2.S:51: Error: bad 
instruction `rorw $8,%ax'
../../../../../../lib/libkern/arch/i386/byte_swap_2.S:52: Error: bad 
instruction `ret'
*** Error code 1

this might be a problem with -current :\