I recently bought a laptop off of my brother, and picked up a PCMCIA
ethernet card that it likes.  (It's supposedly 10/100; it kicks into
``manual'' mode; I'm not sure if that's autodetect, or if I'll be stuck at
10mbps...but that's not my problem at the moment.)

The problem that I'm having is twofold:

 (a) Sometimes it comes up as ne1, sometimes as ne2.  In order to
     configure it, I have /etc/ifconfig.ne1 and /etc/ifconfig.ne2.
     My thought is that I could probably wire it down in a custom
     kernel, but that's kind of yucky.  Is this a known bug?

 (b) Sometimes when I boot, it comes up with the Link LED on,
     and during boot (about the time that ifconfig.ne? is run,
     I think) it turns off the LED, and the device doesn't seem
     to work.

     Other times, I boot and the lights are off, but after
     it gets to the ifconfig stuff, it configures and the Link
     light comes on.

     I believe that the pattern is that if it was working when
     I last booted it, the light stays on (at least if I haven't
     cut power altogether) into the next boot.  And, conversely,
     if it wasn't working when I last booted it, then the light
     is off when it boots until ifconfig time, at which point
     it works.

     I can't see anything that I'm doing to encourage this
     problem, and it doesn't seem to _just_ be ifconfig.
     (My present understanding is that if the Link light goes
     out during boot, then the adaptor is useless until I reboot.)


I can live with these things the way that they are, but if someone can
explain them to me, or suggest a pilot-error that can be fixed, I'd
appreciate it.

(dmesg & other details can be provided if they'll really help---but in
this case, I tend to doubt that they'll be of much help.)

Thanks in advance for any input.


  ``I probably don't know what I'm talking about.'' --rauch@math.rice.edu