I am really stuck stuck!!! auh. please help!

all I am trying to do for now is bring up a very basic debian installed on a compact flash and trying to boot up a embedded system.
I copied a lilo.conf from the web. it is as follows:

disk=/dev/sdb
bios=0x80
boot=/dev/sdb
map=/mnt/flash/map
vga=normal
default=Linux

prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw
image=/mnt/flash/vmlinuz
label=Linux
root=/dev/hda1
read-only

this does NOT work. the file system is not able to mount. I think the problem is in the specification of the root.
the embedded system bios says the CF is the secondary IDE master, which means, I believe it will be seen as /dev/hdc1 by the system. but, lilo seems to require that the root device be /dev/hda1, otherwise the lilo command does not even run.

please explain how is this suppose to work. lilo only allows /dev/hda1, but my system CF is a /dev/hdc1.

Thanks, if you can reach me quickly with an answer.

this is really wierd.

I tried the same thing using my Suse installation, and lilo worked with root='/dev/hdc1'.

does someone know if Debian purposely disabled this feature?

in anycase, my night mare is over. thank heavens.