these are the commands i have to issue after something times out...
# modprobe aic7xxx
# modprobe ext2
# mknod /dev/sda b 8 0
# exit
then it boots.
this is my /boot/grub/menu.lst
default=0
timeout=7
title Linux
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-28-386 ro root=/dev/sda silent quiet
initrd /boot/initramfs.img-2.6.15-28-386-sda
title Windows
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
boot
this is my /etc/lilo.conf
#! /dev/lilo.conf # configuration file for lilo
boot=/dev/hda
compact
delay=70
vga=0x0f05
default=Linux-sda
other=/dev/hdc1
label=windows
boot-as=0x80
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-28-386
label=Linux-sda
initrd=/boot/initramfs.img-2.6.15-28-386-sda
root=/dev/sda
append="silent quiet"
this is my device map
cat /boot/grub/device.map
(hd0) /dev/hdc
(hd1) /dev/sda
this is the partition listing
cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name
8 0 4444462 sda
3 0 1250928 hda
3 64 2062368 hdb
22 0 4124736 hdc
22 1 2096608 hdc1
22 2 2028096 hdc2
thanks for looking...