Thank you all for your responses.  I tried using a shorter pathname on my linux machine for the NFS root directory - didn't seem to help (same error as before).  Good idea, though.  I am guessing that this is one of the standard linux NFS
problems.  For now, I will probably wait until I have another NetBSD machine to help this one along.  Or maybe try using another machine to write a miniroot disk image for the DS (I have a few spare RZ28's kicking around).  The instructions
mention using 'rawrite' on an MS-DOS system to do this - is this really possible?

As for the framebuffer message - I didn't realize the framebuffer could detect there is no monitor connected.  I will try connecting one and see if the message goes away (there is a VR297 here, which I believe is a good match for the
PMAG-BA).  There are messages further on in the diagnostics that indicate the keyboard and pointer are not connected, which I chose to ignore for the time being.  If connecting the monitor doesn't help, I will try connecting these.

Thanks again for the help...

Cory.