one more thing that may be of interest:
% modprobe -c
found this:
alias eth0 off
and also
# Options
options 3c59x 3c59x options=4
options 3c59x 4
the latter ("Options") correspond to what i entered when trying to load
the 3c59x module using modconf. the system hung for so long (30+ minutes)
that i rebooted.
thanks again,
-b