Can't assign IP to network interface vr0

[Matt Staroscik]

I have a system with a 'vr' driver NIC in it. ifconfig sees the interface 
(and I have miibus and vr in my kernel) yet I cannot assign an IP address 
to it with rc.conf or ifconfig.... it just doesn't "stick."

If I use ifconfig to take it down and bring it back up nothing changes but 
the "RUNNING" text in ifconfig's status report. (It seems to correctly 
sense the media type too.)

dmesg contains the following:

>vr0: <VIA VT6102 Rhine II 10/100BaseTX> port 0xec00-0xecff mem 
>0xe5803000-0xe58030ff irq 11 at device 18.0 on pci0
>vr0: Ethernet address: 00:0a:e6:7d:84:22
>miibus1: <MII bus> on vr0

I am sure there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the system because this 
interface USED to work back in my plain vanilla test-install days... I must 
have done something to break it but I can't imagine what! I have the 
correct devices in my kernel (vr and miibus). I have turned off all 
firewall/nat stuff on this box too.

(I know, vr interfaces stink, but it's what I have to use until I 
decommission the old server and take out the nice Kingston card in there.)

TIA,
Matt