You might use an "options" line in /etc/modprobe.conf. The options are
documented in kernel-doc. For example,
$ more /etc/modprobe.conf
alias eth0 e1000
alias eth1 e1000
options e1000 Duplex=2 Speed=100
Thanks for the excellent idea... hmmm... looking at the natsemi driver
it appears that I can't set the speed via an external option. I'll
have to poke around some more, but my quick check doesn't look
promising.
Nevertheless, I appreciate your response and your idea -- in my
heart-of-hearts, its the right answer, but, until I poke around some,
doesn't seem feasible in my situation.
I guess there's always rc.local, but I'll save that for a last resort.
--wpd