I kinda went down this road with a 15" model a while back. 
The short answer is, you'll probably want to netboot and
install manually. But there are some subtleties with the
bootloader - I eventually got the linux yaboot to install
the bootloader, and then it booted without too many troubles.
No X though... And I was never able to successfully build
a kernel that worked myself...

While I was doing it, I wrote down the recipe:

http://www.trick.ca/trickywiki/gnu_5flinux_5fnetbsd

Good luck,
-w

On Thu, Aug 07, 2003 at 01:42:32PM -0500, Rene Salmon wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I am trying to install NetBSD on the new Powerbook G4 1Ghz 17" machine 
> from apple.
> 
> I have tried using the ofwboot and netbsd kernel from 1.6.1 and that did 
> not work.  I get the CLAIM failed message in Open Firmaware. On the 
> supported platforms page it states that current might work.
> 
> I managed to get a copy of ofwboot.elf from here
> ftp://nandra.iri.co.jp/pub/NetBSD/macppc/snap-030329/
> which seems to work.  I also downloaded a copy of the netbsd kernel from 
> the same place but that crashes during boot with a message that states
> it cant find init.
> 
> I really would like to get NetBSD on this machine can someone please 
> point me to a place where I can download a current build of NetBSD to 
> try out on this machine?
> Or at least a copy of ofwboot and NetBSD-GENERIC from current will do.
> 
> Thank you for any help you can give me.
> 
> 
> 
> Rene
>