Per Jessen writes:
Anyone know enough about 2.4 and 2.6 kernels to say if the new kernel is (or isn't) the reason for the swap?
I doubt it - the order in which SCSI controllers are recognized depends on the order in which the respective modules are loaded. It sounds like you might need to have a look at /etc/modules.conf. ...
Plausible explanation. However you should also look at the INITRD_MODULES= line in your /etc/sysconfig/kernel file. This specifies kernel modules that should be loaded early in the boot process, before the root filesystem is mounted. The order of these also determines which disks come up as sda, sdb, etc (that is, if the disks are connected to separate SCSI adapters controlled by different kernel modules).
Also 'man modules.conf'.
With a 2.6 kernel this has been changed to modprobe.conf. -Ti