[SOLVED] Boot no longer stops for prompt, lilo

I built a new kernel with auditing on to debug a problem. booting no longer stops to offer me a prompt to choose which kernel I want; the screen doesn't even display. (hmmm... it is dark until some time into boot; perhaps it does show the menu but it doesn't get displayed.) I use lilo. There is a prompt line in lilo.conf. Reverting to the original kernel makes no difference. When I change the default kernel in lilo.conf it does get booted into.