> as advised, i then have the problems of
> - how to edit the etc/rc that's running all those daemons,
> - as well as seeing which of the etc/rc's is doing it,
> - as well as finding out why it hangs in a loop trying to resolve some link
> file.
> Any suggestions?

Look for the messages before it hangs.  /etc/rc and other startup
files display what they are doing on the console.  Plus, their
execution flow is pretty straight forward, so you should be able to
pin-point where it gets stuck by looking at the console.

> - make a booter program that actually *does* save its prefs.

Oh, it does.  But you have to make sure that the MacOS disk cache is
flushed before booting MacBSD.  That's why the documents suggest you
"quit" the booter after setting and saving prefs.

> - make the thing stop asking me for root shell and terminal type when i
> boot in single user mode (currently the only mode that boots to a shell).

You can just type enter.  You don't have to really answer it.

> I presume this
> is in the normal etc/rc and .cshrc and etc/passwd,

No, /sbin/init (a.k.a. the first process ever executed) does it.

> - make an a/ux mounter for the macos so i can mount the a/ux partition and

I'm not aware of anyone working on "A/UX mounter", but even if there
ware someone, it wouldn't be able to mount BSD filesystems.... 8^)
Okay, it's a nit-picking that I just did.  Sorry, I can't offer any
help on this one.  I don't program on MacOS.  And, without significant
number of requests, I suspect, it would not get any priority in the
development effort.  Of course, as always, you are more than welcome
to volunteer to start such a project...

ken