questions regarding DAC960-based controller

[James Antoniou <jantoniou@mathesoninc.com>]

Hi all...
	I have been attempting to get a DAC960-based RAID controller (Mylex
AcceleRAID 250) configured using a custom Debian boot disk with no luck so
far.  Here's what I've done: 

	1.  Created the custom kernel Debian package using make-kpkg for a
2.2.12 kernel with the appropriate stuff specified using "make config":
ramdisk, initrd, msdos, minix, and the DAC960 block device.  There are no
SCSI device drivers specified since the DAC960 is a block device, not a SCSI
device.
	2.  Modified the /dev/MAKEDEV script to create the necessary block
devices under /dev/rd (major #48).  
	3.  Modified both the basedisks.sh and rootdisks.sh scripts to
create the /dev/rd directory when generating the rescue floppy. 

	boot-floppies creates the resc1440.bin image fine using 'make
release' and the floppy boots fine in the RAID system.  The kernel detects
the DAC960 no problem and all the /dev/rd block devices I need are there.  I
can mount an initialized partition as well.  All the appropriate files are
in /proc/rd and the rd block device shows up in cat /proc/devices.  In
essence, all the hardware components that need to be in place are in place. 
	The problem is that dbootstrap does not "see" a hard drive present.
Here is where my ignorance of the Debian install process shows:  how does
dbootstrap determine if there is a hard drive present?  Is there a way to
customize it to accept /dev/rd as a valid block device?  Or should it do
that automatically? 
	RedHat 6.0 installs no problem on this system using the logical RAID
devices I've configured so I assume all that's kosher.  Since all my servers
here are Debian-based, obviously I do not want to resort to using RedHat
unless absolutely necessary.    
	I've seen other posts here regarding setup of RAID-based systems
under slink and it seems so far there hasn't been much progress.  I
personally would like to contribute whatever effort I can to solving this
deficiency.  Perhaps potato will solve this "problem" but in the meantime I
can't afford to let these costly servers languish.  Believe me -- I'll be
quite happy to post a DAC960-capable boot floppy once I get Debian installed
on this server. 

Thanks in advance for any assistance... 

Jim Antoniou