/proc/partitions does not match /dev

[bxf4@psu.edu (Brian P. Flaherty)]

Hello,

I recently got Debian running on an IBM X31 laptop.  I installed Woody
bf24 kernel first, then installed a 2.4.21 kernel-image from
unstable.  Today I built my own kernel 2.4.21 and when I run lilo, I
get the following message:

Warning: '/proc/partitions' does not match '/dev' directory structure.
   Name change: '/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disk' -> '/dev/hda'
   The kenrel was compiled with DEVFS_FS, but 'devfs=mount' was
   omitted as a kernel command-line boot parameter; hence, the '/dev'
   directory structure does not reflect DEVFS_FS device names.


I did not originally include devfs in my kernel config, but I got this
message from lilo and so I went back and added it.  I still get this
warning message after adding devfs to the kernel and putting
'append="devfs=mount" in lilo.conf (as a global option and as an image
option).

I looked for this on google and google groups, and I saw two messages
including this warning, but they were in languages I cannot read.
What does this message mean?  

>From reading the search results, it sounds like devfs is a mixed bag
and I don't think I need it.  But, then again, I might.  How do I
decide this?

Thanks very much for any pointers or suggestions.

Brian