non-booting Debian sid box

[Scott Howell]

I know this is my own fault for running sid perhaps, but I sure could  
use some help. I can't figure out why my box will not boot. Lilo says  
uncompressing image and just hangs there. I tried using the backup  
kernel and no luck there either.
I grabbed a Knoppix disc and got into the box. I believe if I mount  
the partition /dev/hda1 where the kernel and such lives, I should be  
able to type something like chroot /mnt/hda1 as I have already  
mounted /dev/hda1 on /mnt/hda1 and if typing chroot and the /mnt/ 
hda1, I can get into an environment where I should be able to rerun  
lilo.
I tried this, but no joy. Has anyone any suggestions as to what I can  
do or if I am doing something wrong with the chroot command? I can  
only attribute this problem of not being able to boot based on the  
fact I recently ran aptget dist-upgrade and then I took the box down  
to pain my office and upon restarting the box, it would not boot.
Any advice at this point appreciated. I'd rather avoid reinstalling  
everything, but will do so if there's no out. I would gladdly do this  
and stick with Sarge if that's what I have to do. Gee and how well  
things were going...grin

tnx
Scott