I upgraded from System 7.5.3 to Mac OS 7.6.1, and now the Apple System Profiler reports the startup devices as "Unknown". I upgrade to Mac OS 8, and I still see the same behavior. What is going on?
What you describe is cosmetic, it's symptomatic of having nothing selected in the Startup Disk control panel. This issue has been corrected in Apple System Profiler 1.3.1.