I have slackware64 14.1 system with raid1 on two discs.
no any mdadm.conf configuration, no any initrd -i use “huge” kernel, and all just works right.
Then i do massive system update via slackpkg update-all, including kernel update too.
check lilo.conf, restart - all looks ok. then i decide to upgrade system to 14.2 via the same slackpkg
( looks like live on macos is too boring, too predictable - all work, and so on…:D ) always, i check lilo.conf, check the new kernel is named right, have no old kernel for backup -
only one entry in lilo ( who was not good thing at all! ), and do reboot.
Then all interesting things start!!! :)

I have LiLo menu, kernel start loading…
it show lots of “…” but then all stop, and nothing more do.
That was indicated some problems with lilo updating, i suppose.
I want to boot, and re-run lilo -v
As so, i booting from Slackware64 Live CD http://bear.alienbase.nl/mirrors/slackware-live/ from AlienBob, and try mount my root partition for run lilo again.

But - there was a big problem!
there no my /dev/md1, /dev/md2, /dev/md3 and /dev/md4 after i load via slackware live CD!
and my lilo.conf was that:

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
# Append any additional kernel parameters:
append=" vt.default_utf8=1"
boot = /dev/sda

#compact        # faster, but won't work on all systems.

# Boot BMP Image.
# Bitmap in BMP format: 640x480x8
  bitmap = /boot/slack.bmp
# Menu colors (foreground, background, shadow, highlighted
# foreground, highlighted background, highlighted shadow):
  bmp-colors = 255,0,255,0,255,0
# Location of the option table: location x, location y, number of
# columns, lines per column (max 15), "spill" (this is how many
# entries must be in the first column before the next begins to
# be used.  We don't specify it here, as there's just one column.
  bmp-table = 60,6,1,16
# Timer location x, timer location y, foreground color,
# background color, shadow color.
  bmp-timer = 65,27,0,255

# Standard menu.
# Or, you can comment out the bitmap menu above and 
# use a boot message with the standard menu:
#message = /boot/boot_message.txt

# Wait until the timeout to boot (if commented out, boot the
# first entry immediately):
prompt
# Timeout before the first entry boots.
# This is given in tenths of a second, so 600 for every minute:
timeout = 1200
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
  reset
# Normal VGA console
vga = normal
# Ask for video mode at boot (time out to normal in 30s)
#vga = ask
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
#vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
#vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
#vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
#vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
#vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
#vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
#vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
#vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
#vga=769
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/md1
  label = Linux
  read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

so i do some research, do

dmesg |grep md

and from array size found out, what number was my root partition ( it was 100 gb size). it was md126. i mount it:

mount /dev/md126 /mnt/hd

Then i run mc, and check, i was really mount there my root partition.

Then i do in console : <code> chroot /mnt/hd /sbin/lilo -v 3 </code> but - lilo command end with error - it was cannot find root partition - /dev/md1.

That was problem, because now /dev/md1 was become as /dev/md126 for whatever reason. Then, i do some reading about RAID subsystems, forums and so on, made some mistakes and experiments, who resulted on these shortcuts:

I made array assembling strings in mdadm.conf via do these comands in terminal:

mdadm -Db /dev/md127 >> /mnt/hd/etc/mdadm.conf

mdadm -Db /dev/md126 >> /mnt/hd/etc/mdadm.conf
mdadm -Db /dev/md125 >> /mnt/hd/etc/mdadm.conf
mdadm -Db /dev/md124 >> /mnt/hd/etc/mdadm.conf

In a result i get something like that in end of mdadm.conf: <code> ARRAY /dev/md125 metadata=0.90 UUID=7cc47bea:832f8260:208cdb8d:9e23b04b #this one is 100 gb partition: \ (md1) ARRAY /dev/md124 metadata=0.90 UUID=f0bc71fc:8467ef54:208cdb8d:9e23b04b # 375 gb partition - \home - md3 ARRAY /dev/md126 metadata=0.90 UUID=3f4daae2:cbf37a2a:208cdb8d:9e23b04b # 514 Gb partition - \Second - md4 ARRAY /dev/md127 metadata=0.90 UUID=cce81d3a:78965aa5:208cdb8d:9e23b04b # 2 Gb partition - swap - md2 </code> then, based on :

dmesg | grep md

and /mnt/hd/etc/fstab i found out which md12x must be md1, md2, md3 and md4, and write it there after # as shown above. Then i edit it to become in right way:

ARRAY /dev/md1 metadata=0.90 UUID=7cc47bea:832f8260:208cdb8d:9e23b04b
ARRAY /dev/md2 metadata=0.90 UUID=cce81d3a:78965aa5:208cdb8d:9e23b04b
ARRAY /dev/md3 metadata=0.90 UUID=f0bc71fc:8467ef54:208cdb8d:9e23b04b
ARRAY /dev/md4 metadata=0.90 UUID=3f4daae2:cbf37a2a:208cdb8d:9e23b04b

also i wrote in mdadm.conf that string, just to be sure, hostname do not affect raid naming:

HOMEHOST <ignore>

then i made mdadm_stop_127.scr script:

#!/bin/sh
echo "stopping md127"
mdadm --stop /dev/md127
 
echo "stopping md126"
mdadm --stop /dev/md126
 
echo "stopping md125"
mdadm --stop /dev/md125
 
echo "stopping md124"
mdadm --stop /dev/md124
 
##mdadm --assemble --scan
#-As

I copy it to livesystem root, copy also my edited mdadm.conf from /mnt/hd/etc/mdadm.conf to livesystem /etc, and umount /dev/md125 !

And then i run it - my mdadm_stop_127.scr I see, all that arrays be stopped, and then i run: <code> mdadm -As </code> then i see

cat /proc/mdstat

I see, all my RAID become as it must be - /dev/md1, md2, md3, and md4! then i do mount my root hdd again:

mount /dev/md1  /mnt/hd

and do: <code> chroot /mnt/hd /sbin/lilo -v 3 </code>

all looks good. i do restart:

shutdown -r now 

( or press ctrl +alt+ del) after restart i see, system start loading, and went after previously dead point. i get to login screen, log in as root, and see, there is md1 ( root) and md2 ( swap), but no md3 and md4 ( instead of it i have these /home and /Second arrays as md125 and md124).

Thats look very strange and unlogical, as all raid arrays var create about same time, and was similar - but half of it get right numbers, and half - not. now i try different thing - disable raid autodetect on kernel, before root fs is mounted, and mdadm.conf is available for md module:

i restart machine, press tab on LiLo prompt, and use kernel parameters: <code> Linux raid=noautodetect md=1,/dev/sda1,/dev/sdb1 </code> that says kernel not to autodetect raid arrays, but assemble md1 raid ( md=1) from /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1 partition, because without root kernel system cant start. as i load system in that way, all looks right - there was /dev/md1, md2, md3 and md4. then i just do system restart, without any kernel parameters, and all again going to be right - md1 till md4. looks like, system writes something in RAID arrays superblock, or metadata, or something like that, about previously gived md name, because, if not, after restart i must get again situation as previously - with md1, md2, md125 and ,d124… that was, in a most, all of story. yet, there is some another workarounds of that situation.