Tnx for all the replies...

Anyways, I put the Controller & Harddisks in a slack 10 box, and compiled there the opensource driver from highpoint (after editing 2 lines in a .h-file) with a
2.6.10 Kernel as a Module.

bootparams are: acpi=off hde=noprobe hdf=noprobe hdg=noprobe hdh=noprobe hdi=noprobe

(as stated somewhere in the highpoint docs)

then:
modprobe scsi_mod (not necessary if compiled into kernel)
modprobe sd_mod (dito)
modprobe hpt374 (the compiled module from above)

et voila, /dev/sda is created

if someone could explain how to compile a module in knoppix26 (i couldnt find the /usr/src/linux-2.6.9 tree) one can compile the sources, put the module on a floppy and boot knoppix in expert mode.

my 2 cents

regards
b