ThinkPad install over ethernet problems

[Heresiarch <lpb apocalypse org>]

I have been playing with RedHat 5.2 on IBM ThinkPads.  I have got 5.2
cheerfully installed by using an attached CDROM drive, but I have
never succeeded in getting a network install to work, whether via FTP,
SMB, or NFS.  I've tried installs using several models of ThinkPads
(current torture-test victim is a 760EL) and several models of PCMCIA
ethernet cards, at two completely different locations with different
network configurations.  Note that this is not the problem with the
older Supplemental floppies that fail to mount up.  I have current
Boot and Supp floppies that appear to work fine.  The install fails
after the screen where I enter the address of the FTP/SMB/NFS server
because the install program never has any success with the ethernet
card.

I had complete failures when using 3Com EtherLink III cards
(3C589C/D).  The linklights on the card "pigtails" always shut off
immediately after the install program made a DHCP request.  There is
evidence from the alt screens that the DHCP request was successful,
but after that ethernet connectivity goes away with no errors or other
diagnostic information.

I had better luck, or at least got better error messages, when using
older IBM ethernet cards.  As with the 3Com cards, there is valid IP
address and network information.  However, a look under alt-f4
discovers the following roughly-transcribed errors:

socket 0:  IBM Credit Card Ethernet
executing:  'insmod /lib/modules/2.0.36/net/8390.o'
executing:  'insmod /lib/modules/2.0.36/pcmcia/pcnet_cs.o'
port 0x300, irq 3, mem 0x4026000, 10baseT port, hw_addr 00:04:AC:26:35:51
cardmgr[14]:  fopen(stabfile) failed:  No such flie or directory
cardmgr[14]: executing: '.network start eth0'
cardmgr[14]:  + .network:  /sbin/ifup:  not found
cardmgr[14]: start cmd exited with status 2

Further progress doesn't happen because the network isn't working, but
the install program does not generate any reasonable errors except
for a failure to connect to whatever server you wanted.

However, if I install 5.2 on a ThinkPad via an attached CDROM,
networking will work perfectly after the machine has been installed
and rebooted into Linux.  If I attempt to re-install or upgrade Linux,
the network connection will again fail to work.

It looks to me like the support in the install program for some PCMCIA
ethernet cards is horribly broken.  If anyone has suggestions for
things to try, I'll give it a shot.

Thanks,
Lauren P. Burka
Linux Insurrectionist