how to build a working 2.6 kernel with SATA

["Charles Martin" <martinc@ucar.edu>]

I am trying to build a bootable 2.6 kernel for a Dell 8300, 
which has both the onboard ICH5 SATA controller and a PCI 
Promise S150 SATA controller. Two drives are connected to 
the Promise card, configured for mirroring. I've installed 
RH9, using the proprietary driver from Promise. 

I've been working with 2.6.0-test7. I apply the test7-bk2 patch, 
followed by the test7-bk2-libata patch. This is followed by the standard

make bzImage && make modules && make modules_install && make install.
Note that I have to comment out scsi_hostadapter in /etc/modules.conf
in order for the mkinitrd to succeed during "make install".

I can't seem to get a kernel and initrd combination built
that will boot. I have seen a variety of boot problems,
but they usually seem to be related to a failure trying
to mount the root file system. For instance, the boot
gives the error "error 6 mounting ext3" when trying to 
mount the root filesystem. Pivotroot then fails after this.

I've tried several permutations on having the serial ata built-in, 
versus a module, with varying but always negative results.

Perhaps there is a key step that I am not aware of? Does
my procedure sound correct?

Thanks,
Charlie