Trial

If your PowerMac falls into the category mentioned at Machine Types section, you can try NetBSD boot without anything installed (other than two files on MacOS partition).

1. Find trial stuff on Either
   • ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.5.2/macppc/installation/

     -r--r--r--  1 234  netbsd  1474560 Aug 18 14:47 boot.fs
     -r--r--r--  1 234  netbsd  1365828 Aug 18 14:47 netbsd.ram.gz
     -r--r--r--  1 234  netbsd    58932 Aug 18 14:47 ofwboot.elf
     -r--r--r--  1 234  netbsd    55200 Aug 18 14:47 ofwboot.xcf
     

   • or
     ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/macppc/snapshot/ 20020407-1.5ZC/installation/

     -rw-rw-r--  1 mirror  mirror  1472512 Apr 10 00:46 boot.fs
     -rw-rw-r--  1 mirror  mirror    63176 Apr  9 08:48 ofwboot.elf
     -rw-rw-r--  1 mirror  mirror    59400 Apr  9 08:48 ofwboot.xcf
     

     and at also 20020407-1.5ZC/binary/kernel/

     -rw-rw-r--  1 mirror  mirror       88 Apr 10 01:17 BSDSUM
     -rw-rw-r--  1 mirror  mirror      113 Apr 10 01:17 CKSUM
     -rw-rw-r--  1 mirror  mirror      180 Apr 10 01:17 MD5
     -rw-rw-r--  1 mirror  mirror       89 Apr 10 01:17 SYSVSUM
     -rw-rw-r--  1 mirror  mirror  1823837 Apr 10 00:36 netbsd-GENERIC.gz
     -rwxrwxr-x  1 mirror  mirror  2480967 Apr 10 00:46 netbsd.GENERIC_MD.gz
     -rwxrwxr-x  1 mirror  mirror  1401381 Apr 10 00:46 netbsd.INSTALL.gz
     

   Installation materials

   file name	Kernel	with Memory Disk = installation purpose	Description
   ofwboot.elf	(none)		boot loader (elf)
   ofwboot.xcf			boot loader (generic)
   boot.fs	INSTALL	yes	for floppy boot
   netbsd.ram.gz			limited kernel but in general use
   netbsd.INSTALL.gz		no	INSTALL kernel
   netbsd.GENERIC.gz	GENERIC		production kernel
   netbsd.GENERIC_MD.gz		yes	full kernel for installation, CDROM,netboot etc
   netbsd.macppc			included in macppccd.iso

   Kernel selection

   Name	purpose	device drivers
   GENERIC kernel		almost all necessary
   INSTALL kernel	Limited size to be fit into 1.4M floppy disk	minimum, missing gm0 etc

2. Run MacOS and put

   ofwboot.xcf
   and 
   netbsd.GENERIC_MD.gz (or netbsd.ram.gz)
   

   on your MacOS volume, say Macintosh HD.
3. Power on the machine with key combination pushed while chime rings:

   command + option + O + F
   

4. You will see following screen or similar kind.

   Apple PowerBook2, 1 2.0f5 BootROM built on 01/24/00 at 13:58:31
   Copyright 1994-2000 Apple Computer, Inc.
   All Rights Reserved.
   
   Welcome to Open Firmware.
   To continue booting, type "mac-boot" and press return.
   To shut down, type "shut-down" and press return.
   
    ok
   0 > _
   

   If you type just "mac-boot" here, you will continue booting regular MacOS.
5. Type

   boot hd:,ofwboot.xcf netbsd.ram.gz
   or
   boot hd:,ofwboot.xcf netbsd.GENERIC_MD.gz 
   

   (depends the release date.)
   then ofwboot.xcf runs, find the (install) kernel on the same Volume (partition) and the kernel starts up.
6. If above ends up to

   ...
   root on md0a dumps on md0b
   root file system type: ffs
   erase ^H, werase ^W, kill ^U, intr ^C, status ^T
   Terminal type? [vt100] xterm
   Erase is backspace.
   (I)nstall, (S)hell or (H)alt ? s
   

   Type s for 'Shell', NetBSD will run on your machine.

   You may play with some bourne shell commands here.
   Some usefull command at this stage

   command	What for
   disklabel wd0	browse disk label
   ifconfig gm0 192.168.1.1	attach (gm0) Ethernet Interface
   mount 192.168.1.2:/export /mnt	mount /export partition of NFS server onto /mnt
   mount -t cd9660 /dev/cd0c /mnt	mount cdrom /mnt

7. type

   reboot
   

   to reboot the machine to get your machine back to the normal MacOS.