Got some data. Saved dmesg output prior to network start on four configs:
- TC plus with 2GB RAM
- TC plus with 4GB RAM
- TC plus with 4GB RAM and boot parm max_addr=2G
- TC plus with 4GB RAM and boot parm max_addr=4000M
Results:
- 4GB RAM - booting TC plus from CD with max_addr=2G --- networking is OK
- 4GB RAM - booting TC plus from CD with max_addr=4000M --- networking is inoperative
So, the "max_addr=2G" parm is a great workaround that solves my problem. Thanks, Rich.
If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to work with them on analyzing the dmesg output and/or determining a higher working upper memory bound.
There should be no general issues with lots of ram. I believe you're either seeing a bios or kernel bug.
I am a bit curious why a 32 bit non-PAE TC kernel would be affected by a BIOS bug while a 32 bit non-PAE Arch Linux kernel would not.