It's vanilla mm3-1 with this one patch added from Neil Brown.  I don't think
it has anything to do with it (it looks like a driver issue to me).  But it
can't hurt to mention it.

diff ./drivers/md/md.c~current~ ./drivers/md/md.c
--- ./drivers/md/md.c~current~	2003-08-24 08:07:18.000000000 +1000
+++ ./drivers/md/md.c	2003-08-26 09:11:39.000000000 +1000
@@ -638,14 +638,13 @@ static void super_90_sync(mddev_t *mddev
 	/* make rdev->sb match mddev data..
 	 *
 	 * 1/ zero out disks
-	 * 2/ Add info for each disk, keeping track of highest desc_nr
-	 * 3/ any empty disks < highest become removed
+	 * 2/ Add info for each disk, keeping track of highest desc_nr (next_spare);
+	 * 3/ any empty disks < next_spare become removed
 	 *
 	 * disks[0] gets initialised to REMOVED because
 	 * we cannot be sure from other fields if it has
 	 * been initialised or not.
 	 */
-	int highest = 0;
 	int i;
 	int active=0, working=0,failed=0,spare=0,nr_disks=0;
 
@@ -716,17 +715,17 @@ static void super_90_sync(mddev_t *mddev
 			spare++;
 			working++;
 		}
-		if (rdev2->desc_nr > highest)
-			highest = rdev2->desc_nr;
 	}
 	
-	/* now set the "removed" bit on any non-trailing holes */
-	for (i=0; i<highest; i++) {
+	/* now set the "removed" and "faulty" bits on any missing devices */
+	for (i=0 ; i < mddev->raid_disks ; i++) {
 		mdp_disk_t *d = &sb->disks[i];
 		if (d->state == 0 && d->number == 0) {
 			d->number = i;
 			d->raid_disk = i;
 			d->state = (1<<MD_DISK_REMOVED);
+			d->state |= (1<<MD_DISK_FAULTY);
+			failed++;
 		}
 	}
 	sb->nr_disks = nr_disks;




Configuring Adaptec (SCSI-ID 7) at IO:230, IRQ 9, DMA priority 5
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000038
 printing eip:
c01ecf9a
*pde = 00000000
Oops: 0002 [#1]
PREEMPT SMP 
CPU:    0
EIP:    0060:[kobject_put+6/28]    Not tainted VLI
EFLAGS: 00010206
EIP is at kobject_put+0x6/0x1c
eax: 00000024   ebx: c0459578   ecx: 00000000   edx: 00000024
esi: c9b89ed8   edi: c9b89eec   ebp: c9b89e90   esp: c9b89e90
ds: 007b   es: 007b   ss: 0068
Process modprobe (pid: 73, threadinfo=c9b88000 task=c12bf2f0)
Stack: c9b89e9c c023d2eb 00000024 c9b89eec c026dccb 00000000 c04594c0 ca944dc0 
       c03e3600 c04594c0 ca902da8 00000000 c04594c0 00000000 00000001 dead4ead 
       c9b89ee4 c9b89ee4 00000000 00000001 dead4ead c9b89ee4 c9b89ee4 c9b89ef8 
Call Trace:
 [put_device+15/20] put_device+0xf/0x14
 [scsi_host_dev_release+139/160] scsi_host_dev_release+0x8b/0xa0
 [device_release+22/80] device_release+0x16/0x50
 [kobject_cleanup+40/64] kobject_cleanup+0x28/0x40
 [kobject_put+23/28] kobject_put+0x17/0x1c
 [put_device+15/20] put_device+0xf/0x14
 [scsi_host_put+17/24] scsi_host_put+0x11/0x18
 [scsi_unregister+81/88] scsi_unregister+0x51/0x58
 [_end+172423342/1068932160] aha1542_detect+0x5e6/0x608 [aha1542]
 [_end+172423451/1068932160] init_this_scsi_driver+0x4b/0x116 [aha1542]
 [sys_init_module+405/728] sys_init_module+0x195/0x2d8
 [syscall_call+7/11] syscall_call+0x7/0xb

Code: 85 c0 74 0d 8b 00 85 c0 74 07 52 ff d0 83 c4 04 90 85 db 74 09 8d 43 10 50 e8 07 00 00 00 8b 5d fc 89 ec 5d c3 55 89 e5 8b 55 08 <f0> ff 4a 14 0f 94 c0 84 c0 74 06 52 e8 a9 ff ff ff 89 ec 5d c3