woody install on laptop

[milti <milti@mac.com>]

hello,

for the past couple of days, ive been trying
to do a floppy/network install of woody on my
sony picturebook (usb floppy/xircom netcard)
and have not been able to get past the rescue
disk:  the error that stands out is

   root fs not mounted

i had potato installed (via pcmcia cd drive) just
fine before and actually was able to do some perl
network programming before the upgrade bug
bit me, so i know debian works fine on my pc.  does
anyone have any ideas as to what i need to say
at the boot prompt??  id like to finally get my picturebook
installed with the minimal windows/full debian/full netbsd.
netbsd installed like a dream.  but id like to try woody
as well.  how to get past the rescue floppy??