Hi there,

I'm installing a software raid1 (mirroring) at the moment.
I'm using Suse 10.0 and installing Suse only in text mode. It is installing for 1 hour already. Normally without raid1 this is done in 10 minutes.

is software raid always that slow?

I have used a software mirror on my workstation for a long while now and have not noticed a huge decrease in speed. There will be some but it should not be anywhere near what you are describing. I have not used Suse 10 myself, but could it be done the install and still just building the raid array? In all cases where I have set this up it will do this in the background and let you go on about your work.

You could also make sure you have not mirrored swap space, etc. There is little to no point I can see in mirroring swap space.