>But config complains:
>
>tanstaafl# config FOO
>FOO85: netbsd says root on ep0, but there's no ep0
>*** Stop.

That may be a bug.  The following works in your config file:

	config	sdnetbsd  	root on sd0a type ffs swap on sd0b


>I'm still working on getting this system to come up cleanly using
>netboot.com (the libsa version).  If I configure and build a system
>and boot it with netboot, the system can't determine its boot device,
>hence it can't determine its root device.

That's another.

I use a config file with lines

	config		netbsd		root on ? type ?
	config		nfsnetbsd	root on ? type nfs

which produces two kernels: netbsd, that I boot off a SCSI disk and
nfsnetbsd, that I use to netboot off floppies.  nfsnetbsd finds its
Ethernet device (ep? at pci?, which ends up being ep1) just fine.  So
I think config and the kernel are doing the right thing.

Sounds like the kernel not finding recognising ep0 at boot time might
be a bootblock problem. Perhaps with booting from DOS.

Have you tried buildnig a biosboot.com and booting from DOS via a hard
(or flopppy) disk?  Does it fail to find the root device in the same
way?

How about if you boot the netboot kernel (the kernel that you have the
problem booting via netboot.com) boot from from a floppy (an
installboot'ed BSD filesystem containing a your diskless-root kernel)?
That works, doesn't it?  If so, the problem isnt in the kernel.
Unless maybe it's in the 3c509 initialization.