SiS900 driver after v.1.07.11 (==Linux 2.4.5) won't allow connect.

[Mike]

Hello,

I've got this weird problem, I know the problem is mine 'cuz the latest
in 2.4.17 doesn't work either, and I don't think Linus would keep a bad
copy of widely-used code in his kernel, right?  ;-)
Anyway, the hardware in question is an ECS K7S5A motherboard with a
SiS735 chipset and on-board LAN. The only Realtek chip I see on the
mainboard is one marked "RTL8201L".

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN IT WORKS (flawlessly):
With a modular kernel 2.4.5 I simply 'modprobe sis900' and presto...I
follow that with 'dhcpcd' and I'm on the 'net. Here's what syslog says:
SiS900.c: v.1.07.11 4/10/2001
PCI: Assigned IRQ3 for device 00:03.0
eth0: Unknown PHY transceiver found at address 1 <<<-------!!!!
eth0: Using transceiver found at address1 as default
eth0: SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet at 0xdc00, IRQ3, <MAC-address here>
logger: (dhcpcd) IP changed to <IP-address here>

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN IT FAILS:
With a modular kernel 2.4.6 or 2.4.13 or 2.4.17 I 'modprobe sis900' and
get:
SiS900.c: v.1.08.01 9/25/2001 <<<--------Some kernels differ accordingly
in version and date. All >=1.08 fail.
PCI: Assigned IRQ3 for device 00:03.0
eth0: Realtek RTL8201 PHY transceiver found at address 1
eth0: Using transceiver found at address1 as default
eth0: SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet at 0xdc00, IRQ3, <MAC-address here>

I follow this with 'dhcpcd' and syslog says:
Media Link ON 10mbps half-duplex
....And my prompt hangs there until dhcpcd time-outs after 3 or 5
minutes...

What am I missing here? Should I add some stuff to the 'modprobe sis900'
string now??
And yeah, I've read all the relevant (?!) docs in the kernel sources.
Also, linux-2.4.17/Documentation/networking/sis900.txt only goes up to
v.1.07, shouldn't it reflect the current revision (1.08.01)??

I hope it's possible to just copy the old 2.4.5 source into the 2.4.17
dir (as you can tell: I've never done this) and compile.
TIA for any help and greets!
-Mike