[Sussex] Please help me keep my hair!

[Adam Smith]

(posted on the Gentoo forum but hoping someone on here might have had a
similar experience)

My previous Gentoo install went without a hitch but I'm having a really
frustrating problem trying to install rc2.  For some reason I can't access
my network at all with the livecd! I've tried the onboard Realtek 8100B
(supposedly 8139 compatible) on my AT7-MAX, a Davicom DM9102 which I used
with my Gentoo 1.4rc1 install for months, ANOTHER Davicom DM9102 and two
Pnic LC82Cs which I used to run with the tulip driver. I can modprobe fine
but when it comes to getting an IP using DHCP (which works fine on my
network and always has) or using a static IP nothing seems to work. With the
Davicoms I get a TX timeout error and with the other cards just a 10 second
pause and no error - but I'm not assigned an IP and can't communicate even
if I use a static IP.

This is so strange, I don't think I'm doing anything really stupid.  Can
anyone help please while I still have hair left?

TIA.
Adam.