I suddenly get messages during boot that hdh(n) is not a valid block device. This applies to windows partitions and my swap partition. The only thing that I did that might have messed with something is that I installed and ran webmin (and, fwiw, i can't reach the webmin server--connection refused).

my fstab file is below--any suggestions?

LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hdh9 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
/dev/hdh5 /mnt/programsfat32 auto user,defaults 0 0
/dev/hdh6 /mnt/otherfat32 auto user,defaults 0 0
/dev/hda10 /mnt/datafat32 auto user,defaults 0 0

Are these partitions on /dev/hda - ie primary master drive - if so change them to

/dev/hda5 /mnt/programsfat32 vfat umask=000,defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 /mnt/otherfat32 vfat umask=000,defaults 0 0

and change your swap entry to

/dev/hda9 swap swap defaults 0 0

thanks for the help
yes, they are on the primary master, but (perhaps because of wiring) linux fails to find hda, hdb; hdc; other ide connections to CDROM add up until it decides that hdh is the boot drive.

and...things were working fine as hdh until a few days ago!

Fixed it (with help from webmin to give me an clue).

I had switched an ide cable, hoping to turn my hard drive into hda (from hdh, as above). Didn't work, so i thought nothing further of it. Of course, it turned my hard drive into something else--hde! duh!

anyway, all is working fine again, and i learned something.