Thanks Scot, Actually, I think I figured out the problem. In examining /var/log/messages, I noticed that immediately on bootup, IRQ #185 was being disabled.. It said something about a "Screaming Interrupt".. I tried disabling and enabling various onboard hardware.. It turns out if "Enhanced Mode" is set to P-ATA & S-ATA, it has this problem.. as soon as I disabled that, no more messages about disabling the interrupt, and screaming interrupt.. and the network came right up.. Strange hey? This is an all SCSI system so I don't care about the setting, but I imagine it may cause someone else some issues.
