Trouble running 3.1 GENERIC kernel

I am having trouble booting NetBSD after installing on my cats.

I am using Cyclone 1.3 and installs from a CD.  (I first tried
netbooting, but I suffered severe trouble tftp-ing from my Mac OS X
server.  It seems that as soon there is a transmit error, it fails to
recover...  I have to start over and many many attempts are needed.
Well I switched to using a NetBSD 3.1 CD instead.)

It boots the installation kernel and it allows me to install sets.
Everything seems just fine until I decide to reboot using the GENERIC
kernel installed on the HD.  It loads, but immediately stops,
sometimes it says it catched and exception, but most of the times I
get something like:

boot> boot wd0:/netbsd.aout
Loading wd0:/netbsd.aout to 100000000
netbsd: 467356+73728+213836+[360048XXXXXXXXXXXXXXboot>

Where XXX... is some blinking reverse video garbage characters.

I have tried all supplied kernels, the only that works is the
installation kernel.  Has anyone else succeeded in booting the GENERIC
3.1 kernel?

(Previously I have only used it diskless, and that was a couple of=20
years ago.)

/H=E5kan