Matt Simerson wrote:
> 
> Yesterday I got a wild hair and decided to find a *BSD that runs on my
> blue G3/350 (overclocked to 400). I currently run BSDI and FreeBSD in
> Intel based systems and want my G3's tertiary OS compatible with it.
> OpenBSD doesn't have anything for my G3 so I landed at the doors of
> NetBSD.
> 
> Since the blue G3 has no floppy drive and I wanted to install right away,
> I saw the only way to do so was netbooting my G3. I followed the handy
> instructions, set up a bootp, tftp, and NFS server and began attempting to
> get my G3 net booted.
> 
> After spending all day reading mailing list archives, I installed Open
> Firmware updates, found the infamous ofwboot.elf, learned I didn't need
> it, tweaked NFS settings, and unplugged SCSI devices (and ultimately the
> Adaptec 2930U card).
> 
> Now, I have a working bootp server, correctly configured NFS server, and a
> netbooted G3, sort of. Here's what happens:
> 

[snip]

>    NetBSD/NetBSD-1.4/macppc/binary/kernel/netbsd-GENERIC_MD.gz
> This one seems to be working a lot better. It did hang the first time I
> tried booting right after probing my Adaptec 2930U SCSI card but after
> removing the card, I get much further. It now asks me for a Terminal type.
> After accepting the default vt100 it goes into an infinite loop asking for
> (I)nstall, (S)hell or (H)alt ?
> (I)nstall, (S)hell or (H)alt ?
> (I)nstall, (S)hell or (H)alt ?
> (I)nstall, (S)hell or (H)alt ?
> (I)nstall, (S)hell or (H)alt ?
> (I)nstall, (S)hell or (H)alt ?
> 
> and will not respond to keyboard input at all. This is as close as I've
> gotten to having a working NetBSD system. Anyone got any suggestions for
> getting this thing working (preferably with my SCSI card installed)?
> 
> Matt

Matt,

  I managed to boot this same kernel on my B&W this Wednesday night,
and ran into the same problem.  When you accept the default, you
pressed "return," and there is a bug in this kernel (at least), that
takes the first keypress from a USB keyboard and repeats it over and
over again.  To prevent the bug, press the right shift key before you
press anything else.  Then you will find that it works (although I
think there may be a short delay sometimes before you see any
keypresses appear on the screen.)

  As of Thursday night, I can boot my B&W G3 just fine!  (Although now
I need a hard drive to install on...)

  Try the right shift key, and let us all know how it works.

               J. David Blackstone
               http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/1341/

P.S.  If it makes a difference, or if anyone's interested: I'm not
netbooting, I saved netbsd-GENERIC_MD in the top level of my MacOS
hard drive and typed "boot hd:5,nebsd-GENERIC_MD" from the ofw prompt.