Are you sure the kernel is on the floppy? The vanilla Debian kernel is too big to fit on a floppy.

well i have the 2.4 kernel
and on the floppy i have :
linux.bin 1.1MB
ldlinux.sys 6.8k
and a readme that says
"Linux will be started automatically using the kernel on this floppy disk.
The root filesystem will be mounted from /dev/hdc5 .
"
it also says
"if you
wish to use a kernel on the hard disk, remove the floppy and press RESET " but i cannot seem to get this right
 
I know new kernels are bigger that's why i want only lilo on the
FDD and make lilo boot using the kernel on my hard drive
how do i do that?
 

Sounds like your booting the rescue disc. Can you boot Debian wihtout the floppy? what happens when you try to boot from the hard drive. You'll have to excuse me I'm working on two hours sleep. So I may just be deliriouse.
 
My advice to teh kids out there find yourself a nice job supporitn a development enviornment because when production is down you are UP!

if i don't use the FDD my system boots into Windows because that's the way i want it to behave . i have not installed a boot-loader yet.that's why i want to put lilo on a floppy and with it to choose from windows or linux . Without the floppy i want my sistem to boot into Win.

I've never done what this without having lilo installed an configured in the mbr.
 
Create Lilo Boot Disk:
 
 
Your distribution may already come with a utility to create a lilo boot disk. From a console type: mkboot or mkbootdisk. My system had mkboot however it ran with errors so I was forced to figure out how to create a boot disk manually, intructions below:
 
 
1) Open a console, insert a floppy in the drive and type the following:
 
#mke2fs /dev/fd0
#mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
#cd /mnt/floppy
#mkdir etc && mkdir boot
#cp /boot/boot.b /mnt/floppy/boot
#cp /boot/initrd /mnt/floppy/boot
#cp /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20 /mnt/floppy/boot
 
The first line above will format the floppy. Ignore /boot/initrd if you don't have an /boot/initrd file. Change the vmlinuz kernel number to match yours, do uname -r to find out the number of your kernel.
 
 
2) Create a text file called lilo.conf in /mnt/floppy/etc, add the following text, save and close:
 
boot=/dev/fd0
install=/boot/boot.b
MAP=/mnt/floppy/boot/map
read-only
image=/mnt/floppy/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20
label=linux
root=/dev/hda6
 
Change the information above match your system.
 
 
3) Install Lilo:
 
#cd /floppy
#lilo -C /floppy/etc/lilo.conf
 
The -C parameter allows you to specify a lilo.conf file other than the customary one in /etc.

doesn't this sequence boot with the kernel on the FDD also?