ok all i did. was install with knx2hd and follow instructions, debian-like, lilo in MBR etc. created boot floppy and then rebooted, i didnt change any settings, open any programs. just rebooted and i have this grub command line like thing.

I formatted the drive last night again into ext3 and have a 1gig linux-swap partition, reformatted both and re-installed with the same settings as above. i will try to post my lilo.conf file but i am running it on another computer and it doesnt have internet access yet, so i will need to save a copy to a floppy and bring it out here. ill see what i can do.