>I'm trying to get NetBSD installed on my home G4, but I don't have any
>other machine to netboot/netroot it from... from what i've seen here it
>looks like there is at least preliminary support for this hardware, but i
>can't even get the installer to boot...

I've had similar problems reinstalling on my G3.  The 1.4.2 Installation 
kernel just hangs when I boot it from a network, from CD or from the hard 
disk.  The 1.4.1 installation kernel only boots for me if I remove my 
Adaptec 2930CU SCSI card; otherwise it hangs just like the 1.4.2 kernel.  
A 1.4 installation kernel aborts unless the SCSI card is removed (this is 
a known problem).  And, like you, I've found the 20000205 snapshot kernel 
bombs in OF with a LOAD-SIZE is too small error message.

Here's what I did to get installed:

1) Removed my Adaptec 2930CU SCSI card

2) Copied the 1.4.1 Installation kernel (netbsd-GENERIC_MD.gz) onto my 
hard drive and uncompressed it.

3) Booted up into OF by holding down Command-Option-O-F and responded 
with the command:

    "boot hd:,netbsd-generic_md"

I only have one HFS partition on the Hard Drive so the partition number 
wasn't necessary.

4) When Sysinst asked for where my distribution was I pointed it to the 
1.4.2 files on my CD.

The installation proceeded normally and I have a running system again, 
although I've never been able to boot the system off disk.  I've always 
had to boot from the network and use the local files on disk.

I did notice that the 1.4.1 installation kernel really complained about 
lost interrupts on wd0, but since I was installing on wd1 I ignored them. 
 It didn't seem to be a problem once sysinst finished it's probes of wd0; 
it was able to read and write to wd1 without a problem. I don't recall 
this happening with the 1.4 installation kernel the last time I installed 
with it though.

hope this helps,
-bob