OK, now I see my problem!

I lied about what I had skipped.  I have not installed
nor configured the base system, because I wanted to do
that over the network and I can't get that talking yet.

I have gotten where I'm at using the rescue and root disks
and four driver disks.  The base would be next.
I thought I could do this over the network.

But the installer menu only offers base install from
cdrom, /dev/fd0, /dev/fd1, or an already mounted
file system.

I also haven't done "Edit Kernel Boot Parameters".
So I'm sure this means that I can't make my hard disk
bootable at this stage.

What my machine is running is whatever the rescue disk
booted me into.  I did uname -a and it says this:
  Linux (none) 2.2.19pre17 #1 Tue mar 13 22:37:59 EST 2001 i586 unknown

Sorry to have drug you around all these sharp corners.
I will now grit my teeth and write a bunch of base
floppies.

I don't know where I got the impression that I could
do that over the network.  Too much input, too little
brain to put it in.   :-*

Thanks,

Vic