Help with Thinkpad R31, Superdisk

[Scott Ehrlich <se@panix.com>]

I have a new IBM Thinkpad model R31 and an IBM Superdisk 240 Meg floppy
drive (LS-120).

I'm trying to put Debian on it via an http or ftp connection, but when I
obtain the Woody compact 1.44 disk images (rescue and root) via another
machine with a normal 1.44 floppy drive, though rescue boots fine on the
R31, a simply disk swap to the root.bin floppy, with a press of the Enter
key, seconds later yields "end_request: I/O error, dev 02:00 (floppy),
sector 0 (repeated several times), then the same message but with sector 2
instead, then RAMDISK: Couldn't find valid RAM disk image starting at 0.
VFS:  Insert root floppy...

I've tried several disks, reobtained the root image from the same and
different sources, waited several minutes after inserting the root disk
before pressing Enter.  Same error.

At rescue, at the boot prompt, I've tried: linux=thinkpad or something
like that.  No luck.

I think the LS-120 drive is causing the problems.  How do I get around
this?

Thanks.

Scott