Partition renumbering under 2.4.0

[David Santinoli]

Hi,
 I've noticed that some logical partitions get different numbering under 2.2.16
and 2.4.0. Here's my /dev/hdb layout:

  hdb1: fat32
  hdb2: Solaris partition (contains 4 Solaris slices)
  hdb3: ext2
  hdb4: extended partition (contains 1 ext2 logical partition)

and here's how it gets detected by the kernels:

2.2.16:
  hdb: hdb1 hdb2 <solaris: [s0] hdb5 [s1] hdb6 [s2] hdb7 [s7] hdb8 > hdb3 hdb4 <
 hdb9 >

2.4.0:
 hdb: hdb1 hdb2 hdb3 hdb4 < hdb5 >
 hdb2: <solaris: [s0] hdb6 [s1] hdb7 [s2] hdb8 [s7] hdb9 >

Note that the ext2 logical partition is called "hdb9" by 2.2.16 and "hdb5" by
2.4.0.
This makes it difficult to manage multi-boot systems with 2.2.x and 2.4.x
kernels, as it requires updating fstab between boots. Switching to other
identification strategies such as ext2 labels - as discussed in other threads -
could be a workaround, as far as I know.

Cheers,
 David