Well in an attempt to setup an up-to-date development environment so I can
proceed with my bootstrap study, I have tried the various releases in the
current tree, here are my disheartening findings after doing massive cvs
checkouts and compiles:
	
type       kernel      kernel(GENERIC)            make build
            ver      compiles?    boots?
---------------------------------------------------------------
0205-snap   1.4R       n/a         yes              n/a                  
0205-cvs    1.4R       yes         yes          failed on stdarg.h         
0301-cvs    1.4T       yes         no           failed on pppd
0304-cvs    1.4U       yes         no           didn't test
0308-cvs    1.4U       no          n/a          didn't test
0309-cvs    1.4U       yes         no           compiling ...
            

in the cases where the kernel compiles fine but fails on boot it hangs at
---- cut from failed boot ------------
scsibus0: waiting 2 seconds for device to settle...
sd0 at scsibus0 targ 2 lun 0: <, , > SCSI0 0/direct fixed
sd0: mode sense (4) returned nonsense; using fictitious geometry
sd0: 8201 MMB, 8201 cyl, 64 head, 32 sec, 512 bytes/sec x 16796929 sectors
probe(mesh0:4:0): Sense Error Code 0x0
mesh: timeout state=3
mesh: resetting dma

<hangs indefinitely>
---- end cut from failed boot -------


     where as with 0205 it succeeds with the following printout

---- cut from sucessful boot --------
....
scsibus0: waiting 2 seconds for devices to settle...
sd0 at scsibus0 targ 2 lun 0: <SEAGATE, ST34572N, 0784> SCSI2 0/directfixed
sd0: 2292 MB, 6300 cyl, 8 head, 93 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 4694700 sectors
sd1 at scsibus0 targ 4 lun 0: <SGI, SEAGATE ST51080N, 0950> SCSI2 0/directfixed
sd1: 1010 MB, 4826 cyl, 4 head, 107 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 2070235 sectors
ne0 at pcmcia0 function 0
ne0: Dayna CommuniCard E Ethernet
....
---- end cut from sucessful boot -----

(no changes were made in OF other than the boot-file variable, and I was
able to toggle between the various kernels, 0205 consistantly worked)

So would someone please shed some light on this? what happended in the
tree since 0205 could have resulted this? (Tsubai, as you can see, I
couldn't get the 0304 kernel to boot either). 

all of this is on a Powerbook 2400c with 2 external SCSI hardrive, 
I started off with the 20000205 snapshop from the site.

thanks much.

-jake