(newbie alert!) (I've looked around the archives and haven't found anything that seems to help)
This is about a 486DX-100 system. Debian Linux is installed on my hard disk, and I have a boot floppy. The floppy works OK, and uses the hard-disk root OK. When I try to boot from the hard disk, though, I see "LI" but no "LO"--that is, the boot prompt won't even complete (so I can't try giving it commands). Before I tried reinstalling the lilo package, at that half-a-prompt point the system went into fibrillation, issuing continuous beeps until I rebooted (i.e., from the floppy). Now the beeps are gone but after "LI" the system stops and no keystrokes I can find make any difference, except Ctrl-Alt-Del. Pressing Alt or Shift before the LILO prompt starts to appear (as suggested in one HOWTO) has no effect. Does anyone recognize this pathology? Charles Hartman the Ever Grateful to DebUsers
