Ok. I finally got things running.
To get OpenBIOS to compile, I had to go back to an older Linux system. I installed Ubuntu Lucid (10.04). This has gcc-4.4.3 for the host compiler.
I was able to get OpenBIOS to compile with gcc-4.7.0 for sparc-elf, but it just hangs with no text output to the terminal. I downgraded to gcc-4.6.3 and things work great again.
By the way, the openbios-sparc32 that is part of the git HEAD for qemu does not work for me either (same hang as noted above). I suspect some kind of library clash.
Thanks for your help along the way!
Respectfully, Paul.