The standard i386 boot loader is called “LILO.” It is a complex program that offers lots of functionality, including DOS, NT, and OS/2 boot management. To find out more about this functionality, you can read the documentation in /usr/doc/lilo after your system is set up.
3.13 Make a Boot Floppy
You should make a boot floppy even if you intend to boot the system from the hard disk. The reason is that it’s possible for the hard disk bootstrap to be mis-installed, but a boot floppy will almost always work. Select “Make a Boot Floppy” from the menu and feed the system a blank floppy as directed. Make sure the floppy isn’t write-protected, because the software will format and write it. Mark this the “Custom Boot” floppy and write-protect it once it has been written.
3.14 The Moment of Truth
You system’s first boot on its own power is what electrical engineers call the “smoke test.” If you have any floppies in your floppy drive, remove them. Select the “Reboot the System” menu item.
If are booting directly into Debian and the system doesn’t start up, either use your original installation boot media (for instance, the Rescue Floppy) or insert the Custom Boot floppy if you created one, and then reset your system. If you are not using the Custom Boot floppy, you will probably need to add some boot arguments. If booting with the Rescue Floppy or similar technique, you need to specify rescue root=rootfs, where rootfs is your root partition, such as /dev/sda1.
Debian should boot, and you should see the same messages as when you first booted the installation system, followed by some new messages.
3.15 Set the Root Password
The root account is also called the superuser; it is a login that bypasses all security protection on your system. The root account should be used only to perform system administration and for as short a time as possible.
Any password you create should contain from six to eight characters, and it should contain both uppercase and lowercase characters, as well as punctuation characters. Take extra care when setting your root password, since it is such a powerful account. Avoid dictionary words or use of any personal information that could be guessed.