In message <15127.41621.167715.134507@maes.adc-itcl.ce.philips.com> you write:

|> when the kernel boots it enumerates all devices.
|> it finds le0 . sbus so-and-so more blah address: <addr1>
|> it finds le1 . sbus so-and-so more blah address: <addr2>
|> 
|> now addr1 and addr2 are indentical! i thought that these addresses were
|> the MAC addressess. which i must be unique by definition.
|> so how come they're the same?

The MAC adresses are taken from the machine's IDPROM. Recent OpenBOOT
releases have an envariable "local-mac-adress?" which when set, causes
the MAC adress for cards that have their own to be taken from the card.
Older (for suitable values of "older" ;-) cards don't have their own.

As long as those two cards are not on the same network segment (say,
one connects to your LAN, the other to and only to your cable modem)
you don't need to worry. Otherwise, grep the init scripts for ifconfig
and set the MAC adress of one of the boards by hand just before it is
ifconfig'd "up".

|> can i disable ipv6 completely.

Dunno. grep -i the init scripts for v6 and then read up the manpages
for the commands near the occurences.

|> ps: somebody mentioned something about the SS1 being power hungry.

Huh? I measured on a SS2 with two internal disks and 64 MB RAM once.
Depending on disk acitivity, it consumed 30...40 watts, which is less
than many Pentium-ish systems will use for the CPU alone. Due to bad
current curve form and phase shift, it is not valid to simply multiply
your amperemeter reading with your line voltage.

	vb