> Does anyone know what if any difference there is between the netbsd.ram.gz 
> kernel that is expected in the miniroot directory and the kernel built from 
> the INSTALL config file?

Yes! The kernel needs to have a ramdisk stuffed into it by "mdsetimage".
Without this, the install kernel is useless unless you put the ramdisk
contents on a mountable device (or NFS) and convince the kernel to use it.

This extra detail is what kept me from supplying a full set of install
kernels with all my 1.4.2 builds. If I'd known how many rebuilds we
were going to end up doing, I'd have just made time for a full job,
but as it turned out, I backed out all the bogus logic in a panic, and
ultimately only got it working for sparc and macppc (macppc because one
is traditionally shipped, but the makefile bits didn't exist; sparc
because we had a direct request for a netbootable install kernel
and I was already rebuilding sparc for the n-th time).

IMHO there is no reason why we should not provide proper install kernels
across the board. It's on my agenda for 1.5, at least.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ best.com