What I realized after I wrote this was that he was trying to boot with the root disk.
Oliver Elphick wrote: > "Eloy A. Paris" wrote: > >Aaron Walker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >: I just installed Debian 1.3.1 on my 486 w/4MB RAM. I made Debian hard > >: drive bootable because it's the only drive in the system. When I > >: rebooted, I got this message: > >: > >: 3FA: > >: > >: This is all it says. Even when I try to boot off my boot disk, it says > >: the same message. Please help. Thanks. > > > >/usr/doc/mbr/README explains it all. The documentation in > >/usr/doc/lilo can also help. > > Since the user says he can't boot even from floppy, he may need the text here. > This extract is from /usr/doc/mbr/README: > ================================================== > 4. The boot process > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > When the MBR is first loaded it waits for a configurable length of > time, monitoring the keyboard, for key presses. If the MBR detects a > key press, it will interrupt the boot process, and display its > prompt. Otherwise, it will load the first sector of the default > partition, and execute it. If a disk error occours, the MBR will > display its prompt. > > 4.1 The boot prompt > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > The boot prompt looks something like this: > > 14FA: > > This is the list of valid keys which may be pressed. This means that > partitions 1, and 4 can be booted, also the first floppy drive > (F). The A means that 'advanced' mode may be entered, in which any > partition may be booted. The prompt for this mode looks like this: > > 1234F: > > The only other valid key which may be pressed is RETURN, which > continues booting with the default partition. > ========================================================== > > -- > Oliver Elphick [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Isle of Wight http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver > > PGP key from public servers; key ID 32B8FAA1 > > Unsolicited email advertisements are not welcome; any person sending > such will be invoiced for telephone time used in downloading together > with a £25 administration charge. > > -- > TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] . > Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . -- ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` Aaron Walker Work: Site: http://www.iconmedia.com Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Personal: Site: http://www.iconmedia.com/aaron Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] `````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .