Network on new hoary install

[Zoltan Szecsei]

Hi All,
OK - I'm going NUTS!!!

First attempt with Ubuntu/Debian but many years on RH/Mandrake/SuSE.

Just loaded a fresh v5.04 onto this system and cannot get networking going.
I did use the opportunity, at install time, to set up the static IPs & 
gateway for both network interfaces.
I can log into my user *and* su to root in a shell (hence passwords 
*are* good).

When I go system->admin->networking on the desktop, I get a password 
prompt.
Whether I put in root password or my own (as suggested when using sudo), 
I get "Failed...child terminated with 1 status"

If I try Applications->SystemTools->Network Tools, I get password 
invalid, even though I am not prompted for the password. The "Network 
Device" dropdown shows "Network Devices Not Found"

How can I hack in somewhere to sort this out?
(Sorry, new to the setup so don't even know what commandline tools exist).

Some background:
MSI 915g motherboard with sound (didn't get detected) and onboard 
graphics (does work with X), and onboard gigabit network.
PCI slot 1: 3COM 10/100 network card
PCI slot 2: 2 port serial card
PCI slot 3: Old ET6000 vga card (want to set up multiple independent users)
PS2 Kyb & PS2 mouse
USB Kyb & USB mouse

The above HW worked flawlessly (without the ET6000 and USB Kyb/Mouse) 
with SuSE 9.3.
I have now ripped out the ET6000 & the Serial card to minimise IRQ 
conflicts/issues.

Still no avail.

Please can someone tap me in the right direction - or should I just 
reformat & start again?

TIA,
Zoltan

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