> I just tried this again (from BeOS).  It makes a floppy.  I shut the
> machine down.  Power it off.  Wait some amount of time.  Turn it on.
> I get 4 cycles of lights going up and down.  It hits the floppy briefly,
> then zooms the Be logo and starts booting BeOS.

What firmware does the machine use ? I've noticed that, at least on my
BeBox, recent firmwares didn't try to boot from diskette at all since
BeOS v4 unless I cold boot, and the latest doesn't even try to boot from
diskette.

Try downgrading your firmware to the BeOS 3.1 level - you'll end up with
a decent firmware, which accepts to boot from diskettes anytime.

Miod