The EEPROM getting scrambled is a result of drivers probing for devices on the bus that don't happen to be there, and hitting the network card instead. This happens more with the rescue disk than with a custom kernel because the rescue disk is built for every scsi and ethernet card we could fit in the kernel. If you can tell me about the I/O ports of your network card we can give you magic words to put on the boot command line for that device that reserve its ports and prevent other drivers from touching them.
This isn't strictly a Debian problem - it'll happen to any generic kernel with all of the device drivers built in. Also, well-designed hardware wants you to say the exact right magic words before it makes its EEPROM writable. It doesn't write it for just any random I/O. I'd suggest that others stay away from net cards that exhibit this behavior. Thanks Bruce -- Bruce Perens K6BP [EMAIL PROTECTED] 510-215-3502 Finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] for PGP public key. PGP fingerprint = 88 6A 15 D0 65 D4 A3 A6 1F 89 6A 76 95 24 87 B3 -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .