Linux 8.0 & RAID 0+1 Problem

Ok, so I'm experimenting with Linux since I haven't really played around with it much. I decided to recreate the Raid array on my VP6 with HPT370 controller from just RAID 0 to RAID 0+1. Under RAID 0 it had been partitioned 4 ways and was running Win2k/2k Adv. Server/WinXP/unformatted .
I'm not sure if I went about creating the array properly but here's what I did:
1)Create duplicate mirror disk from Primary Master to Secondary Master

2)Stripe Primary Master/Primary Slave and then Stripe Secondary Master/Secondary Slave seperately.

3)Create RAID 0+1 array with PM/PS(striped) mirrored to SM/SS(striped)

It seemed to work fine and I got no complaints from the system or Linux about it during installation.

I installed Linux 8.0 and everything seemed to go smoothly. Unfortunately I didn't create a boot floppy because I had none laying around. I removed all the installation disks and rebooted once Linux had finished installing. The system got as far as the following step:

Updating DMI....
GRUB

then it seems to hang and all I can do is reboot at which point it stops at the same place or if I insert the Linux OS disk it attempts to run the installation again.

That is when I checked out the forum to see if people had any similar problems and discovered that my problem might be associated with the hardware RAID array. I'm wondering if any solutons have been discovered/posted, and if so, where exactly.

If not should I disable the hardware RAID and go with software RAID through the OS?

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

I got the similar problem, instead I was installing Mandrake 8.1. I guess Linux doesn't support Raid well. I couldnt even partition my HD.

The "hardware" RAID on your VP6 is really just a "firmware" or driver RAID. Basically little more than a glorified IDE controller. Using software RAID in Linux would probably provide the same result as trying to use the drivers.

If you do this, you'd want the RAID BIOS settings to be set to JBOD - don't actually set up any RAID volumes. The OS will do this job once everything is configured.

That being said... I think Highpoint controllers are at least half arsed supported in Linux with a driver. Don't know for sure though. (There's a thread on that in here if you do a search for "Highpoint" within the topic) On my fileserver system (Redhat 8) I used software RAID for my mirrored array because I really didn't feel like figuring out if the card I had (Silicon Image chipset) had a driver. I don't boot from the array though. And I set it up after installing Redhat.....

My problem is that I'm running a pretty bare server with SMP and RAID but not much else. Therefore, my RAID array must be bootable and redundant. If I set the Raid to JBOD will it be bootable on it's own after I set up Raid through Linux?
On a second note, I never recieved any error message about the array being unreadable or anything by Linux. It never asked for any drivers from me although I wasn't looking all that hard to see if there was an option to install any.
I've searched around this forum and the links to other forums for an answer that is definitive but all I've found is more questions about different Raid setups and supposed solutions which seem to be extremely convoluted and not guaranteed to work.

Thanks for the attempt. I guess I'll just have to wait and see if an absolute solution is discovered.