Disk Drive Order Changes - Again

[Butch Kemper <kemper@tstar.net>]

Back in February, I asked a question about problems I was having with 
the hard disks sequence flip-flopping when I would boot: disk #1 
would be hda and disk #2 would be hdc; or disk #1 would be hde and 
disk #2 would be hda.

I receive answers about using labels with the partitions so, I 
labeled the partitions and updated /etc/fstab.  This is how things now look:

        IDE #1  Partition       Label           Mount Point
                1               /               /
                2               swap1           swap file
                3               /usr            /usr
                4
                5               /usr/local      /usr/local
                6               /var            /var

        IDE #2  Partition       Label           Mount Point
                1               /var/poptemp    /var/poptemp
                2               /var/mail       /var/mail

The /etc/fstab:

# <file system>         <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc                    /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
LABEL=/                 /       ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
LABEL=/usr              /usr            ext3    defaults        0       2
LABEL=/usr/local        /usr/local      ext3    defaults        0       2
LABEL=/var              /var            ext3    defaults        0       2
LABEL=/var/poptemp      /var/poptemp    ext3    defaults        0       2
LABEL=/var/mail         /var/mail       ext3    defaults        0       2
LABEL=swap1             none            swap    sw              0       0

Now the partitions and mount points get assigned correctly no matter 
which order the drives are assigned.

The remaining problem is with the GRUB and the kernel.  It was 
suggested that a LABEL specification be placed in the 
/boot/grub/menu.1st entry so that:

        # kopt=root=/dev/hda1           becomes
        # kopt=root=LABEL=/

Using a LABEL in the Grub menu does not work because the kernel get confused:

        1.  If kopt=root=/dev/hda1 and the disk order changes to make
            the boot disk be /dev/hde, the boot process stops and drops
            into a prompt.  I can unmount /boot, mount /boot on the
            correct drive, give a CTL-D to the prompt, and the system
            would continue to boot.

        2.  If kopt=root=LABEL=/, the boot process will stop and drop
            into a prompt WITHOUT /boot being mounted.  I can mount
            /boot on the correct drive, give a CTL-D to the prompt,
            and the system will continue to boot.

No where have I been able to find any documentation that shows that 
the Kernel boot command root= can have a LABEL specified.

So, how do I make the kernel consistently detect and assign the disks 
in the correct order?  Someone suggested the problem lies with UDEV 
and the parallel hardware detection process.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Butch