Hi Rob,

  Thanks for responding.

You said:
>you did not install boot blocks. If you're install ig NetBSD on that disk, 
>use the miniroot filesystem and dd it just like the instructions say.

I did use the miniroot filesystem (miniroot-12.fs.sun4) on sd1b.  That is:

  dd if=miniroot-12.fs.sun4 of=/dev/rsd1b bs=20b conv=sync

I tried several times making sure that everything was exactly as in the
INSTALL document.  I then used the command

  boot disk1:b netbsd -s

It responded by:

  (reset)
  Initializing Memory /...
  Boot device: /iommu/sbus/espdma@5,8400000/esp@5,8800000/sd@1,0:b File and args 
    netbsd -s
  ok

That is it didn't boot.  So I try again and say

  boot disk1:b netbsd -s

It responded by:

  Initializing Memory /...
  Boot device: /iommu/sbus/espdma@5,8400000/esp@5,8800000/sd@1,0:b File and args 
    netbsd -s
  The file just loaded does not appear to be executable.
  ok

And it wouldn't boot it.

So, I'm still stuck.  Is there some ROM environment variable that specifies 
boot file format that I don't have set correct.  It still properly boots
SunOS 4.1.3 when I say "boot".

-- 
Phil Nelson                       NetBSD: http://www.netbsd.org
e-mail: phil@cs.wwu.edu           LPF: http://www.lpf.org
http://www.cs.wwu.edu/~phil       !gifs: http://www.lpf.org/Patent/Gif/Gif.html