kernel panic : not syncing; VFS; Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (0,0)

[brandon]

after synaptic dist-upgrading to breezy when i try to boot i get this error:

kernel panic-not syncing VFS Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (0,0)

possible cause:
when i try to dpkg-reconfigure linux-image-2.6.10-5-686-smp i get 2 suspicious
lines among the report

cpio: (0xfffe000) : no such file or directory
cpio: /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb7feb000) no such file or directory

i checked and /lib/ld-linux.so.2 actually does exist. what exactly is the
function of this file?

i dont think theres anything wrong with my menu.lst

what could be causing this problem and how can i solve this? driving me nuts at
the moment.... some help please T.T