Success!
My nVidia MCP61 now works! I have internet! I'm posting this from my new machine!
The fix:
: I saw the "No configuration found for eth0" messages in
:: /var/log/boot.omsg
:: /var/log/warn
: I used google to find articles mentioning this message
: One article advised me to remove the MAC address tail from the name of the ifconfig-eth0-id file in /etc/sysconfig/network , then reload forcedeth. E.g.:
:: mv -i ifcfg-eth-id-00\:32\:16\:9b\:d2\:34 ifcfg-eth-id
:: modprobe -l forcedeth
:: modprobe -r forcedeth
:: modprobe forcedeth
: The problem is that I HAD NO ifcfg-eth0-id file in /etc/sysconfig/network
: So I decided to build one, using the file in my existing system as a model, and changing only the MAC address and the device name.
: First, I ran "ifstatus eth0", and got the following message:
eth0 device: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Ethernet (rev a2)
No configuration found for eth0
: Then I added two copies of the new file, one with the MAC tail and one without. Then I ran "ifstatus eth0" again, and GOT A NEW MESSAGE!
eth0 device: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Ethernet (rev a2)
DHCP4 client NOT running
eth0 is down
: Well "down" is better than "dead"! Progress at last!
: Then I reloaded forcedeth, using the modprobe's, and reran ifstatus
eth0 device: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Ethernet (rev a2)
. . . is just beeing set up
eth0 is up
4: eth0: