Eth0 still doesn't work under 2.4.9

[Vittorio <vdemart@supereva.it>]

At last, after an extenuating series of failures I've been able to
compile a tailored 2.4.9 kernel for my laptop under debian potato,
using many of the options I had been using when compiling the 2.2.19
one.

Now, it happens that while my 2.2.19 kernel at boot time recognizes
the eth0 card (an eepro100, built as a module) and I can issue either
ifconfig or ifup without problem, the new 2.4 kernel doesn't seem to
recognize it (compiled as a module) giving the following well known
error:

potato#ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.1
SIOCSIFADDR:no such device
eth0:unknown interface:no such device

If I issue 'modprobe eepro100' 'ifconfig' works properly but 'ifup
eth0' goes on failing saying:

ifup: interface eth0 already configured

As a further check (but I don't know if it is relevant!),in
/var/log/messages I find the following:
 
<snip>
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf0478, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
Unknown bridge resource 2: assuming transparent
PCI: Discovered primary peer bus 04 [IRQ]
PCI: Using IRQ router PIIX [8086/7110] at 00:07.0
Limiting direct PCI/PCI transfers.
<snip>

And issuing lspci I get:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX - 82443BX/ZX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX - 82443BX/ZX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:04.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
00:04.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
00:07.0 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 03)
00:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1978 Maestro Audiodrive (rev 10)
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 09)
00:09.1 Serial controller: Lucent Microelectronics: Unknown device 0445
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage P/M Mobility AGP 2x (rev 64)


Vittorio