A few weeks ago I started the present thread. The messages from this
list
seemed to conclude that it was a hardware problem and no remedy to
make it
work. Then I bought a new usb ethernet port and upgraded the kernel
to
linux-image-2.6.32-bpo.5-686 in order to have the new device
working. Just out
of curiosity, I tried if the new kernel detected the old port
and... surprisingly, it now seems to work fine! Just pity I've spent
about
20€.
I resume it all: the laptop is 5 years old. The old port used to
work; then it
stopped working; now it works again with a new kernel; with the old
kernel it
still doesn't work.