Thanks guys for your comments.
The Grub issue has come up because I am trying to build a new base image for deployment at my work.(I use Clonezilla for imaging.) Right now I have about 15 computers running SLED9 and another 30 or so runing OpenSUSE 10.1. In both of those distributions, GRUB is configured to use the “dev/sda” format which allows for imaging. The “/device/by-id” gives problems when imaging so that is the reason for trying to change the Grub configuration. Both Sled9 and 10.1 can easily be adjusted using the Boot Loader tool so I’m stumped here. I have tried changing the Grub config and fstab setting during installation but no luck. Clearly OpenSUSE 11.1 and SLED11 have a different default configuration. The Boot Loader is getting is information and writing that to the grub config files.
I’m open to any suggestions.