i've made progess into netbooting this thing, turns out the way i had my dhcp
server configured was violating the maximum bootp payload size.  server
resonfigured, but now the next hurdle:

snoop reports:

# snoop
Using device /dev/le (promiscuous mode)
OLD-BROADCAST -> BROADCAST    DHCP/BOOTP BOOTREQUEST
blackhole.arkham.net -> BROADCAST    DHCP/BOOTP BOOTREPLY
fred.arkham.net -> blackhole.arkham.net TFTP Read "/tftpboot/netbsd" (octet)
blackhole.arkham.net -> fred.arkham.net ICMP Destination unreachable (UDP port 6
9 unreachable)

with SQE enabled on the transceiver i get:

ftp boot(3), bootp tftpserver_ip_address:/tftpboot/netbsd.

with SQE disabled i get the first message above quickly and the it is 
overwritten with:

.tftpserver_ip_address:/tftpboot/netbsd\?IO: LANCE sts 0xa6b3

SQE doesn't affect the output of snoop.

so why isn't my ds5000 there when the tftp server tries to send the kernel?

-brian