What is SIOCSIFFLAGS, and when will he be back?

["Raymond L. Zarling" <rayz@toto.csustan.edu>]

Linux has stopped talking to my ethernet card (Kingston KNE100TX, tulip
driver).  The probem seems to be in ifconfig, which reports:

SIOCSIFFLAGS: Resource temporarily unavailable

I run a dual boot system, and it works fine from Windoze 98.  It used to
run, some weeks ago, in Linux too, but I neglected Linux for a few weeks,
and when I tried it now again--this!  I honestly don't remember changing
anything in the interim; I certainly haven't opened the computer case. 
Since I don't know what SIOCSIFFLAGS are, I'm completely stumped about
where to look next.  Short of clearing the disk and reinstalling
everything, but that's one of the things I was hoping Linux would save me
from.

As shown below, the tulip driver doesn't seem to be complaining, and
ifconfig has all the right IP addresses and routes.

Any ideas what's going on here?  Thanks!

--Ray
rayz@toto.csustan.edu


****** dmesg ******
Linux version 2.2.12 (root@crashtest) (gcc version 2.7.2.3) #2 Thu Aug 26
11:46:26 PDT 1999
...
tulip.c:v0.91g 7/16/99 becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov
eth0: Digital DS21143 Tulip rev 65 at 0x6100, 00:C0:F0:3B:F7:91, IRQ 0.
eth0:  EEPROM default media type Autosense.
eth0:  Index #0 - Media MII (#11) described by a 21142 MII PHY (3) block.
eth0:  MII transceiver #1 config 3000 status 7829 advertising 01e1.

****** ifconfig -a ******
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:C0:F0:3B:F7:91  
          inet addr:192.168.1.13  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:100 
          Base address:0x6100 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:3924  Metric:1
          RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

****** lsmod ******
Module                  Size  Used by
nls_cp437               3548   1  (autoclean)
tulip                  29060   0  (unused)
serial                 18412   1 
parport                 6600   0  (unused)
vfat                    8972   1 
umsdos                 22768   0  (unused)