> 'boot floppy netbsd' at the openboot prompt and I am rewarded with
> "Data Access Exception"
> 
> What I used:
> 	* a 1.44MB floppy disk (formatted under DOS)
> 	* used fdimage.exe to write the uncompressed boot-142.fs.gz
>          image to the disk (I am supposed to ungzip it right?)
> 	* typed 'boot floppy netbsd'

OK, that should work.

Are the environment variables set correctly in prom?

I can check mine when I get home tonight, but vaguely, memory
suggests I had to set to values to off, covered in the install.txt.
Then, I had to set the boot-dev and the boot-file parameters.

> Type  help  for more information
> ok boot floppy bsd
> Boot device: /fd   File and args: bsd
> >> OpenBSD BOOT 2.1
> Booting bsd @ 0x4000
> 991232+2355736+60320=0x343db8
> Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
>         The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
> Copyright (c) 1995-1999 OpenBSD. All rights reserved.  http://www.OpenBSD.org
> 
> OpenBSD 2.6 (RAMDISK) #101: Thu Oct 21 22:13:14 MDT 1999
>     deraadt@sun4m.openbsd.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/sparc/compile/RAMDISK

Its booting the ramdisk image OK.

> real mem = 41795584
> avail mem = 36556800

You have plenty of ram.  Mine is only a 16M ram box.

> using 16 buffers containing 1048576 bytes of memory
> bootpath:
> data fault: pc=0xffea72c8 addr=0xffffffec ser=8080<WRITE,INVAL>

The kernel can't find a valid data path to write to.
It sounds like it can't find the hard disk?
No bootpath setting?

The bootpath to the hard drive is not set correctly, maybe.  On my
IPX, I have the HD set to id0.  Then the bootpath in prom is set to
/sbus0/esp0/sd@0,0.

On my SS1, it is set as follows....

setenv boot-from sd(0,0,0)bsd            (yours may be sd3 or vmunix?)
setenv sdtargets 01234567                (yours may be 31204567?)

But, the boot proms are slightly different between the SS1 and the IPX,
and I can't get to the IPX now.  You can probably see what needs to
be set, though.  The prom has to find the correct hadware and it has
to match what the boot kernel needs.

> Does this indicate a hardware problem?  Would running the self tests
> like test memory or test floppy be of any use?

Probably not, just prom settings off a bit.  It is probably a good
idea, though, to have ram tested for the full 40mb, even though it
takes forever.

That is all I can think of, offhand.

Bob