Random sd* devices numbering

[Marco De Vitis <starless@spin.it>]

Hi, I'm configuring Etch (kernel 2.6) on a machine which has a builtin 
Intel ICH7 SATA controller (I'm using two HDs in software RAID on it), 
plus an Areca PCI-X SATA RAID controller (4 HDs in hardware RAID), plus 
a LSI PCI-X SCSI controller (connected to an external storage unit).

It all works, but the problem is that the devices are more or less 
randomly named at boot, i.e. the Areca device is sometimes /dev/sda, 
other times sdb, or even sdd, so using device names in fstab or 
elsewhere is dangerous.

I've googled a bit and found out about the "scsihosts" kernel boot 
parameter, but it doesn't seem to work.
So, for the moment, I've worked around the problem by assigning labels 
to the partitions and mounting them in fstab using the label references.

Isn't there a better way? Isn't there a way to be sure that the devices 
order will always be the same?

Thanks.

--
Ciao,
  Marco.