I don't know if this is a good idea or not, but I'm curious to know:

If you sorta kinda, sim-linked, or created a device note that pointed to /dev/sdaX but was called /dev/hdaX, would lilo then recognize that it could change the root to /dev/hdaX?

Like I said, I don't know if it's a good idea, (actually it seems a little sloppy). What do you guys think?

Have you ried grub yet?

Yes it works perfectly in grub, I am just trying to find a way to do this correctly and neatly with lilo for my own info . Reading through every resource I can find to see if lilo has a command similar to grub's *root (hdX,X)*. I have figured out how to switch the partition lilo boots to say from sda1 to hda2 from the command prompt, can then change the lilo config file to boot to debian, rinse, reverse and boot back to zenwalk, but lilo seems to be having difficulty switching for zenwalk that uses /dev/sda my ide drive and debian and slackware that use /dev/hda. With slackware and debian combo'd i just have to boot into each and type lilo and they will both be in the boot menu or I can just manually type the config file. I am beginning to think it just may be a lilo limitation, a poor one too for me because i have an SATA drive too (currently unplugged). Hmm, wonder if lilo will boot my sata drive and zenwalk.

sata is sd* for old and new kernels as scsi is.
So sata/scsi disks shouldn't be a problem (even should slove yours)