Not an answer to your problem, but another way to do what you're trying to do is to simply install lilo or grub on a floppy disk. You could then use a kernel off the hard drive (like you would if it was installed on the MBR.)
Ian Monroe http://mlug.missouri.edu/~eean/ On Mon, 26 Nov 2001, Nick Dodd wrote: > Hi > > I've been having problems booting Debian from floppy. > > The reason I boot from floppy is that I have 2 hard disks on my PC: > Windows lives on the first, and linux on the second, with my root > partition on /dev/sdb1. > > I installed Debian from CD, and this created a boot floppy > pretty straightforwardly, which has always worked. However, > I'd like to recompile the kernel and install it on a new > floppy. > [snip]