rootdelay=9 kernal option - why?

[francis picabia <fpicabia@gmail.com>]

On most of my older systems, I've needed to add the option rootdelay=9 to
make the system boot when upgrading to the kernel and such for squeeze.
Without it, the root file system is not found and it drops you into
the initramfs prompt.

I've fixed this on about 5 or more systems, and it has come to the point where
I have to wonder why does the kernel present this problem?  Why not have
a safer default?  The solution isn't hard, but it seems pointless to
break the boot up
for so many systems.  Really an issue for kernel devs, but I suppose
the installer
for Squeeze could possibly use some sort of magic to guess when it
might be needed.
Can rootdelay=9 cause any problems?