I happen to have an 8500 and it will net boot as will any pci based mac
with built in ethernet.  I did it with linux ppc.  I can't seem to find
the instructions on how I did it (they are in the faq-o-matic i think) but
basically the boot device was somthing like net and the boot file was
root=/dev/nfs<machinename and directory> as I recall.  You need a bootp
server and a tftp server on the same subnet for it to work.  It was a bit
of trial and error.  Definately harder than making a sparc netboot.

wes

~~~~wesman@gladstone.uoregon.edu~~~~~~~~~~NeXTMail OK!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vax  a vicious creature known to eat 110AC and quotes through its 
*DCL*.  Vax are usually found in groups of Vaxen called clusters where 
they lay in wait to ravage thier prey known as users.

On Tue, 1 Dec 1998, John Preisler wrote:

> Date: Tue,  1 Dec 1998 09:51:08 -0600 (CST)
> From: John Preisler <john@vapornet.net>
> To: port-macppc@netbsd.org
> Subject: Re: Netbooting the iMac
> 
> 
> on a related note,  I have a carcass of an 8500 sans hard drive and
> was wondering how you set up OF to netboot in a completely diskless
> environment 
> 
> -j
> 
> 
> Wesley Horner writes:
>  > > 
>  > > PS: If somebody can think of another way to boot NetBSD on the iMac
>  > > (except soldering a floppy connector onto the mainboard), I'd also like
>  > > to hear it...
>  > 
>  > The imac will boot kernels off of cd roms and off of the hard drive.  The
>  > problem is getting other OF settings.  It will always find the kernel.
>  > Just drop the kernel in the root of the hard drive under mac os and tell
>  > it that the boot device is hd:kernelname to boot from the hard drive or
>  > cd:kernelname for a cd rom. 
>  > 
>  > wes
>  > 
>  > ~~~~wesman@gladstone.uoregon.edu~~~~~~~~~~NeXTMail OK!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>  > Vax  a vicious creature known to eat 110AC and quotes through its 
>  > *DCL*.  Vax are usually found in groups of Vaxen called clusters where 
>  > they lay in wait to ravage thier prey known as users.
>