This document lists the steps involved when adding the Areca RAID driver (arcmsr.ko) to the initrd image.  
These procedures assume that a linux distro has already been installed on the system.

Things you will need:
  FC3 disk 1, or rescue CD
  arcmsr.ko driver file
  kernel.src.rpm
  Areca RAID driver source 

Instructions:
1: Boot into linux rescue mode.
   When warned of no disk drives swich to virtual terminal 2
   (CTRL + ALT + F2)

2: Insert floppy with arcmsr.ko driver.  This can be obtained
   either from Areca's web site or on their CD.

3: Insmod arcmsr.ko and switch back to virtual terminal 1
   (CTRL + ALT + F1)

4: Continue on with booting rescue mode. It will mount the system
   in /mnt/sysimage.  Once you have a shell, chroot to /mnt/sysimage.

5: Install kernel source rpm.

6: In /usr/src/redhat/SPECS run rpmbuild -bp --target=noarch kernel.spec

7: Change directory to /usr/src/ and set up the following links:
   ln -s redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9/ linux
   ln -s redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9/ linux-2.6.9

8: Copy the kernel config that maches your architecture from /usr/src/linux/   configs/kernel.config.file to ../.config.

9: Run make oldconfig.  This will take a while to complete.

10: Run make all.  Again, this will take a while to complete.

11: Untar the Areca RAID driver source.  Create a custom Makefile that 
    contains the following:

obj-m	:= arcmsr.o

KDIR	:= /lib/modules/INSERT.KERNEL.VERSION/build
PWD	:= $(shell pwd)

default:
	$(MAKE) -C $(KDIR) SUBDIRS=$(PWD) modules

12: Run make.  This should have put an arcmsr.ko in /lib/modules/kernelversi    on/kernel/drivers/scsi/

13: Run mkinitrd --with=arcmsr /boot/initrd-2.6.9-1.667smp.img
    Remember, it is always best to make a backup of any file that
    will be changed!

14: Reboot.