If the boot procedure, from CDROM or floppy, stops along the way you may have to rebuild the Linux kernel for your hardware (see \cite{KernelHowto}).
An immediate halt after 'loading Linux kernel' usually indicates your kernel has been built for the wrong CPU.
A 'can not load root' message indicates your kernel can not find the root partition (common when moving to devfs). Indicate a root partition at the boot prompt (see the section called “LILO”).
A 'can not find tty' message indicates the supplied root partition hasn't got a proper /dev directory. This is usually caused by a non-devfs /etc/fstab file. Mount /dev by supplying a valid root path (of the /dev/ide or /dev/scsi type) and edit the fstab file once booted.
A 'can not find root' kernel panic may imply are using a SCSI adaptor for your HDD which has not been compiled into the kernel or found in the init ramdisk.
And finally: if you don't have a CD drive and can't make an NFS mount you can select to prepare an install with only some of the tools mentioned above copied on the hard drive. Because T2 is so transparent procedures like these have saved me in the past!
A error message like:
shared libraries: /usr/lib/libshadow.so.0: undefined symbol: libshadow_md5_crypt
usually indicates that a shared library another application or library does depend on is not installed. You may have forgotten to select the 'install unresolved dependencies' options during the installation. You can fix this by simply running stone now and select this option - it should install all the libraries that are missing - or just install this package manually.
If, somehow, lilo is screwed and you can't boot into your system the best option is to boot from floppy or CD, mount the partition and run chroot:
mount /dev/discs/disc0/part7 /mnt chroot /mnt /bin/bash --login
Edit /etc/lilo.conf and rerun lilo.
If your target partition is not large enough to do a full T2 Linux install it is quite feasible to un-select a number of packages.
Typically Mozilla, RFC's, GNOME or KDE are really large package or package groups. Unselecting some of those will have the largest impact.
When the first application started in a X session, that lookups installed fonts and metrics via font-config, takes a long time to start, this is usually caused by an outdated cache. Run /etc/cron.d/80-xfree86 as root to regenerate to refresh the cache.
The default window-manager can be selected in STONE. You could export the WINDOW_MANAGER environment variable in your ~/.profile like
export WINDOW_MANAGER=blackbox
So blackbox becomes the window manager used for your personal X session.
You could also run a graphical login manager like kdm, gdm or xdm. They can be enabled in STONE and allow a graphical selection of the window-manager to use for each new login-session.