how to build a working 2.6 kernel with SATA

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