Much obliged, had pretty much figured it was going to be a kernel setting, 
thanks for giving me the specifics :-)

At 03:17 3/07/2002, Brian A. Seklecki wrote:
>yep.  it seems that 'tlp at pci?' is absent from GERNERIC_LAPTOP (hey,
>don't ask me >:}) but present in INSTALL_LAPTIO -- cc'ing tech-kern@ if
>someone wants to add...there may be a good reason it's not there.
>
>bash-2.05# grep -i tlp GENERIC_LAPTOP
>tlp*    at cardbus? dev ? function ?    # DECchip 21143
>tlphy*  at mii? phy ?                   # ThunderLAN PHYs
>
>bash-2.05# grep -i tlp INSTALL_LAPTOP
>tlp*    at pci? dev ? function ?        # DECchip 21x4x (and clones)
>Ethernet
>#options       TLP_MATCH_21040
>#options       TLP_MATCH_21041
>#options       TLP_MATCH_21140
>#options       TLP_MATCH_21142
>tlp*    at cardbus? dev ? function ?    # DECchip 21143
>tlphy*  at mii? phy ?                   # ThunderLAN PHYs
>
>do two things:
>
>*) Roll your own kernel
>*) send-pr(8)
>
>-lava
>
>On Tue, 2 Jul 2002 @ 1:02pm (+1000), J. Piers Hearn wrote:
>
>JPH> I've just done an install of NetBSD 1.5.2 on my HP XE3 laptop, and
>JPH> immediately run into a problem with my network card. The install floppies
>JPH> went fine, my card was detected without a problem, and autoconfigured 
>my ip
>JPH> address fine. Downloaded install sets, installed, all fine. Rebooted, set
>JPH> /etc/myname and /etc/mygate to appropriate values. Found my network not
>JPH> working. Ran dmesg, saw that my NIC appeared to be getting recognised and
>JPH> set correctly (an Accton Tech card of some sort, built in to the laptop),
>JPH> but when I tried an 'ifconfig -a' it wasn't listed, and when I did
>JPH> 'ifconfig tlp0' I got Device not configured.
>JPH> Going back to my install floppies (using the INSTALL_LAPTOP kernel), and
>JPH> running ifconfig -a, I got this:
>JPH>
>JPH> tlp0: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
>JPH>    address: 00:d0:59:32:8d:5d
>JPH>    media: Ethernet autoselect (10baseT)
>JPH>    status: active
>JPH>
>JPH> Running dmesg at this point provides the following:
>JPH>
>JPH> tlp0 at pci0 dev 16 function 0: ADMtek AN985 Ethernet, pass 1.1
>JPH> tlp0: interrupting at irq 11
>JPH> tlp0: Ethernet address 00:d0:59:32:8d:
>JPH> ukphy0 at tlp0 phy 1: Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface
>JPH> ukphy0: OUI 0x000895, model 0x0001, rev. 0
>JPH> ukphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
>JPH>
>JPH> Back to my actual install (using the GENERIC_LAPTOP kernel), I started
>JPH> fiddling around, the dmesg appeared to have the same info as for the 
>floppy
>JPH> boot, but still nothing from ifconfig. Given that it was now 5am, I 
>gave in
>JPH> and left it for the next day. I don't know what I did, but now my NIC is
>JPH> not even getting identified/configured -- when I look at my dmesg now 
>I get:
>JPH>
>JPH> Accton Technology EN2242 10/100 Ethernet (ethernet network, revision 
>0x11)
>JPH> at pci0 dev 16 function 0 not configured.
>JPH>
>JPH> So. I figure I must have changed some setting so that this all 
>stuffed up.
>JPH> Anyone got any suggestions here?
>JPH> Thanks in advance,
>JPH>    Piers.
>JPH>
>
>later -           | _BonaFide[] = { coder, author, | /~\ The ASCII Ribbon
>Brian A. Seklecki | problem solver, scholar, BOFH, | \ / Campaign Against
>                   | vegetarian, runner, NetBSD     |  X  Exchange, Outlook
>                   | advocate, spiritual machine }; | / \ & HTML Email
>
>PGP: 0111 4618 0111 4618 4AB2 24EB C853 6611 75C4 A91E A7A7 4973
>
>"Microsoft Windoze: 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit 
>patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit 
>microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of 
>competition."