editing lilo after kernel panic

[red_death]

I have just reinstalled gentoo for the forth time , but this time i get an error i have not had before

VFS: Cannot open root device "dev/hda4" or 00:00
Please append a correct "root= " boot option
Kernel panic: VFS:unable to mount root fs on 00:00

i have read in other posts about re-editing the lilo.conf file but i dont know how to access it anymore

If i boot of the cd again I can only look at what is on the cd , how do i find me lilo.conf file
I read something about getting into chroot environment, so i tried stage 8.6 again but the /mnt/gentoo folder is empty on the disk so it doesnt work

can anyone help a stupid newbie out

cheers
Red