>> FYI, my MAXINE has 40MB RAM and 36MB+ dedicated swap space and I
>> routinely use it for NetBSD kernel build with 4 parallel make (make -j 4).
>> It seldom uses swap space, and runs as CPU/RAM speed. 
>
> Something must be terribly wrong with my machine then, since it was running
> out of space with 24mb + 132mb.  Is there something else the "panic:
> vm_fork: no more kernel virtual memory" could mean? 

I can't imagine other reason than your machine runs as swapless.
Could you show me the result of;

	/sbin/swapctl -s
	/sbin/disklabel <YOUR_DISK>
	cat /etc/fstab

Tohru Nishimura
Nara Institute of Science and Technology