[vox-tech] different kernel versions see HD's as different devices

[Kai Harris]

In trying to get firewire to work correctly, I am trying to use the 
standard "vanilla" 2.4.19 kernel instead of my gentoo 2.4.19-r7 kernel. 
  I haven't had any trouble getting or compiling the vanilla kernel, but 
when I boot it, it insists that my hard drives are /dev/hde and /dev/hdf 
whereas my gentoo kernel recognized my drives as /dev/hda and /dev/hdb. 
  This is a royal pain as it means that when I boot the vanilla kernel, 
it doesn't recognize my /etc/fstab settings (they all say /dev/hda* or 
/dev/hdb*) among other things.

I have absolutely no idea why a new kernel would recognize my drives as 
different devices.  Can anybody enlighten me and/or offer a fix?

Kai