I downloaded slackware 8.1-current ( on 11/13/02-11/15/02) and proceeded to install it on the following system. BTW Fist time with RAID in Linux.

MSI-K7T266 Pro-RU MB (Built On Promise RAID)
AMD AthlonXP 2000+
(3) 256 MB PC2100 (266MHz DDR)
EVga GeForce Ti4400 128MB
SB Live MP3+ Sound Card

Drives:
2 WD 60GB On Promise FastTrak RAID Controller (Both Master on respective channels, striped )
1 WD 80GB on Built-IN IDE0, Master
1 Sony 16X-DVD ROM IDE0, Slave
1 Panasonic DVD-RAM LF-D311
1 Mitsumi 24x CD-R

and a Floppy!!

I have Win98 (c: on the 80GB ), Win2k AS (/dev/ataraid/d0p1) and WinXP (/dev/ataraid/d0p2)

So anyways.. I installed with the raid.s bootdisk.. first was gonna try to install to the 80GB. finally figured out it was /dev/hde so partitioned etc...setup wouldnt find the partitions I created..hmm.. so I went to the RAID.. /dev/hda..some problem..OK I figured out it is under /dev/ataraid/d0 ...created a 15 GB partition(d0p3) and installed... tried using ext3 but kept getting out of disk space errors...reformatted with ext2 and install went smookthly..I installed LILO to the superblock of the partition with the default boot kernel (raid.s) dd'd the first 512 bytes of d0p3 and copied it to my C: Drive ( Win98 ) to install under my WinXP BootMenu
added* c:\bootsect.lnx = "Linux" *end

Reboot and upon loading it detects my RAID and my built in IDE and the pauses..BUMMER...so i put in the raid.s boot install disk and appended
"mount root=/dev/ataraid/d0p3"
and it boots into the system..
Compiled a new kernel..etc...etc..etc.. Ive used Slackware for a LONG time ( due to its very technical, no simple fancy setup. Though now that I feel stupid I might switch to RedHat )but have been without Linux for about 6 months.
Any ideas on what to do?
Ive gone nuts editing /etc/lilo.conf, configing the kernel..Luckily build time is FAST so no big deal..

I dont really want to have to use ide.i and just neglect the raid till later but...
HELP ME
Thank you

OK. Now i tried to install to the 80GB based on the on board IDE. with bare.i it still comes up as /dev/hde ... well I can't get LILO to load...I got farther with the RAID install..LILO stops at the first L and the just prints 99 99 99 over and over for about 5 or 6 lines.
I used to get LI and could figure out the problem..usually some BIOS/disk/lilo.conf setting... but I never had it stop at the first L.
Now what?