Wailer writes:
> 
> did you install boot blocks on the hard drive?
 
The install did the disklabel part, so I assume so.

> perhaps that would give you a 'no system' error though.
 
I would have thought so.

> if you can boot from floppy but not from hd, I'd guess your boot 
> blocks are bad.

I'm starting to investigate /usr/src/sys/arch/i386/boot now.
I suspect I'm in the right area 'cause grep reveals:

   start.S:eread:  .asciz          "Read error\r\n"

;-)

-bmw