This bug actually has happened both on my system and another user I was conversing with in forums. The 8139 will not work unless compiled as a module. This is 100% a gentoo issue, as under 2.4.17-19 it works flawlessly in debian (both using their packages and compiling from kernel source at ftp.kernel.org)
could you be more specific as to the kernel version you have trouble with if you're talking about a realtek 8139 nic, ive never had a problem compiling it into the kernel ...
Just the gentoo kernel that comes with 1.4_rc1. It *compiles* fine. But when the computer boots it won't detect the nic. Whereas compiling as a module does detect the nic. Makes no sense, but thats whats happening. Like I said, if I download the kernel 2.4.19 from ftp.kernel.org in debian, I can compile it in and it works perfect, so I assume it must be a gentoo kernel patch affecting it.
the only gentoo kernel patch that touches the 8139 driver is the netdev-random patch, and I sincerely doubt that that is messing with it. In general (btw) it is better to have network drivers compiled as modules any way because then you can choose what ethernet interfaces they should be attached to. if you can give me a complete .config and dmesg from the broken kernel I might be able to have a better idea what could be causing this anomally.
Can you test this with lolo-sources-2.4.20.1_rc3 or later please.
db fix
