newbie² in trouble: installation fails

[damiaan <damiaan.persyn@euronet.be>]

hello there, (please forgive my poor English)

I've got an interesting case for you linux wizzkids...

I tried to install Debian 2.1 and now i can't boot from hard disk and
floppy, or reinstall the system:

I tried to install Debian 2.1 on a 486 with floppies.I managed to boot
from hard disk, and started doing some linux. Soon i got tired of
downloading the packages each time i wanted to try something new and
ordered the cdroms. First wanted to configure the cd-driver for my
creative labs CR-563 B in linux, it never worked out(also in dselect).
After a while i convinced myself it would be better to reinstall (what
would allow me to repartition as well). I still had a rescue and a boot
disk. I repartitioned, and wanted to continue with a cdrom-installation.

I couldn't configure my cdrom-driver. I tried a few things, and gave it
up. When i wanted to reboot, i found out my hard disk was empty(i
partitioned it), and i tried to reboot with my boot disk. Linux stopped
booting with an 'unable to open an initial console' message. Then i
could only try to reinstall with floppies. When i started the whole
installation once again everything seemed allright, till i came at
'install the OS kernel and modules' where you have to insert the rescue
disk (it was already inserted). i got 'this is not the rescue
floppy...'message. tried it again and again, nothing helped. I threw the

floppy away, took another computer, rawrited2 resc1440.bin to it, this
one didn't work either, nor did any other floppy.(all formatted 14.4
disks that allowed me to start the installation but stopped at the same
point).

So these are my questions: how can i get Linux to understand that i'm
using the right floppies?
                                         how can i configure my CR-563
creative labs in the installation program?
                                        what is this message when i boot

from a boot-floppy:'unable to open an initial console'?



here are some technical details: MB: Sis85c47,BIOS: Award v 4.50G,12MB
ram, SB16 with CR-563B CDROM (proprietary), linuxver: Debian 2.1, kernel

2.0.36



Thanks!!

damiaan