[dnanian]

Well, that's what I thought you meant in the first place! What's strange is that, as far as I know, Option key handling is done by Open Firmware. As such, I don't understand why Option boot wouldn't work while Cmd-Options-O-F or X would work, since all these keystrokes should be handled by OF's boot loader in ROM, without regard for what the drive situation is.

No matter, though -- as I said, happy you've got a workaround and an explanation.