Issues loading Sarge on Compaq ML530

[Roger Haxton <rhaxton@swbell.net>]

I have a Compaq ML530 with 2 73GB drives (RAID1) on a Compaq SmartArray 
controller.  These are my boot drives.  I have 1 36GB drive on internal SCSI.  
I then have 4 36GB drives (RAID5) on an Adaptec RAID controller.  I load 
Sarge doing a netinstall.  

My first hurdle is getting grub to load on the SmartArray drives.  It SAYS it 
works fine, but when I reboot, I get an error stating missing operating 
system.  I was able to get around this by doing an expert install and loading 
lilo on the first partition.  I would prefer to have grub working, but I am 
willing to live with this if necessary.  

Now to my 2nd quandry and this one I haven't found a solution for.  When I'm 
booting the box (once I got it to boot), it stops at Give root password or 
press CTRL-D to continue.  I can hit CTRL-D and the box boots fine.  However, 
the filesystems I put on the other two controller's disks, aren't mounted.  I 
can mount them with a mount -a and they mount correctly, but I'd rather have 
them mount correctly at boot.  

What it appears to me to be is that the controllers for the other two disks 
aren't being started in time to do the fsck on boot.  So, what I need to know 
is how to check the order these controllers are being started in and how to 
correct if that is indeed the problem.  I have another admin friend that is 
having the same problem with one of his new servers.  His is more critical 
than mine, though as his filesystem that isn't mounting is /var so the box 
won't boot.

I've done some googling for an answer, but, apparently haven't found the 
correct mystical google incantation that leads me to my solution.  I'm more 
than willing to RTFM if someone would just point me to TFM.  :-)

Thanks in advance,
Roger
-- 
~R~
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Test-tube babies shouldn't throw stones.