> If bootstrapping is refined to the point where a proper disk label with all
> partitions is there early on, then I don't see why a generic kernel can't
> query for root and swap separately and put them on any partition you like.

This is what "labeledit" is intended for. I don't know if anybody else
uses it, but I use it to place a label holding all the partitions I want
to have on my disk into the miniroot's bootblocks. Then racopy copies 
the bootblocks/label to disk and the partitions are setup.

On the other hand I can see no reason why one would want to use other
combinations for root/swap than a/b or b/b (I changed my opinion on 
that during the last weeks :-) since b is the only partition where you
can store things into without doing any damage to existing data ...
(Assuming the label holds the correct sizes/offsets for at least a and b)

Ciao,
	bertram