Lenny kernel rndis_host usb net rndis problem

[Mark Glassberg <vzeeaxwl@myfairpoint.net>]

For more than 5 years I have tried to connect my modem/router, a 2Wire
HomePortal 1000SW, to my system over a usb cable.  Today I tried the
Mandriva 2010 live cd and the usb connection was recognized and installed
as eth2 automatically.

I installed and tried linux-image-2.6.32-bpo.3-686 and linux-image-2.6.32-
bpo.2-686, without success.  While Mandriva is able to install my modem/
router as eth2 (I have two ethernet cards), neither of these can.  On that
system my device uses rndis_host as its driver, but the kernel messages from
my old/present kernel indicate that rndis_host fails to get the "ethaddr."

This is just a guess, and I'm relatively new to Debian, but might the
difference in kernal behavior be related to the fact that the ndiswrapper
module is part of the Mandriva compile process?  That module could have
made some ndis code available to their kernel which our's lacks.

The attacked tar contains dmesg and lsmod listings for Lenny and Mandriva
plus the Mandriva kernel config file, lsusb and /proc/bus/usb/devices file.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.