Dhcp and pcmcia NIC startup (SOLVED)

Question

Hello;
I'm pretty impressed with Arch up to now, but am having a problem with the pcmcia NIC. I'm sure it's some simple config problem, but I haven't been able to figure it out.
I'm using a Network Everywhere NP100, which uses the axnet driver. No problems there. I have it set as eth0="dhcp".
It works fine, but when I restart the box, or start up from a cold start, dhcp isn't assigning an IP, and during boot, network fails on start. After the box is up and running, I have to remove the card from the slot and reinsert it to get dhcp to assign an IP.
I haven't seen this problem with other distros, so I know it can be fixed, not not sure how. Below is my rc.conf, maybe somebody can spot something I'm missing?
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
TIMEZONE=EST5EDT
KEYMAP=us
CONSOLEFONT=
USECOLOR="yes"
# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"
# Networking
HOSTNAME="Arch-laptop"
# Module to load at boot-up (in this order)
#   (prefix a module with a ! to disable it)
MODULES=(!usbserial !ide-scsi snd-es1968 yenta-socket pcmcia ohci_hcd ehci_hcd pcspkr parport_pc parport irtty_sir sir_dev irda crc_ccitt i2c_piix4 i2c_core uhci_hcd usbcore tsdev evdev rsrc_nonstatic pcmcia_core snd_ac97_codec snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm snd_timer snd_page_alloc gameport snd_mpu401_uart snd_rawmidi snd_seq_device snd soundcore rtc)
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
#   (prefix an interface in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it)
# Note: to use DHCP, set your interface to be "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
lo="lo 127.0.0.1"
eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(lo eth0)
# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
#   (prefix a route in ROUTES with a ! to disable it)
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
#   (prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it)
DAEMONS=(dbus hal pcmcia syslog-ng crond network !netfs !hotplug)
# End of file
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Answer 1

# When you boot the machine the first time it is just fine?
No it has this problem every time the machine is started.
# Do you really have to remove the card from the slot, isn't 'cardctl eject' enough?
Removing and reinserting the card is faster than typing out a command so that's what I do.
# Does it work with static IP?
Don't know, router is set up as DHCP and haven't tried changing it to static. As it's a mobile machine, I'd prefer it works using dhcp.
# Does your machine own another nic, so the race who will become eth0 could be won by an ethernet card?
No, I just have the one NIC at the moment. I have a wireless pcmcia NIC as well, but haven't installed/configured it yet as I don't use it much and would like to solve this ethernet problem first.
#By the way, which kernel modules own the axnet drivers?I can't see any matching module in rc.conf's modules section, and you have hotplug disabled.
It's owned by pcmcia, which loads the module itself when the card is detected. This is working perfectly and the driver modules loads no problem. As far as I can tell the problem seems to be with the network daemon itself, but I could be mistaken about this.
I disabled hotplug for the moment while I try to figure this out. At first I thought hotplug was the culprit but even with it disabled the problem remains. I just haven't bothered to re-enable hotplug as I already have all the modules loading through rc.conf anyway and it speeds up booting.
Hope the additional info may help figure this out. I'm stumped.