This is more or less fixed now in feisty (the local-top/mdadm script needs a little "sleep" to wait for my block devices to appear). I'm closing this bug.
** Changed in: initramfs-tools (Ubuntu) Status: Unconfirmed => Fix Released -- initramfs does not handle whole-disk raid devices and partitionable arrays https://launchpad.net/bugs/48756 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs