a few days ago I posted that our networking had mysteriously died.
there were no obvious indications why: all I had done previously was
edit /etc/inittab and /etc/gettydefs to try and get a modem working.

then a reboot or two later, and the ethernet card would NOT transmit.
I would get wd8003 transmit timed out. errors in the logs.

I had a backup on tape, and I restored all of /etc, /etc/inet and the
kernel. the network still wouldnt work. ping would just generate
kernel errors (the wd8003 ...error). I thought this was a bit strange.

I restored any kernel I had saved. no luck. I built 99.8 from patches.
no luck. I built 99.8 fresh from the sources. no luck.

the only thing that worked was an old SLS boot disk.

Some e-mail correspondence suggested that I use the ethernet drivers
from ftp.super.org. Well whattaya know: that old SLS boot disk pops up
with a message attributing the drivers to super.org.

I cant explain why *several* kernels later, 99.7, 7A, etc. the net
still worked, then *without* even touching the kernel, it mysteriously
stops working. Anyway, I followed the instructions on ftp.super.org,
and I used those ethernet drivers to make a kernel that works with our
SMC 16 bit ethernet card.

So Im happy it works now. Anyone have theories about why it *stopped*
working, when there was no visble change to the files? (this is weird:
I restore files from a tape made from a *working* system, and the
system still wont work).  maybe the soft settings on the ethernet card
got twiddled , making it fail with my previously working kernel.

-- 
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 John Paul Morrison                     |  
 jmorriso@rflab.ee.ubc.ca        VE7JPM | .sigfile without a cause
 ubc-cs!rflab.ee.ubc.ca!jmorriso        |
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