Driver that works only when module is loaded late, not from loader.conf

[Andrew P.]

I have the very same issue on the very same hardware

Abit KV8-Pro motherboard
VIA Velocity Gigabit NIC (built in)

FreeBSD 5.4/i386 = everything's great
FreeBSD 5.4/amd64 = "MII read timed out", "failed to start MII
autopoll", "MII without any phy!" - and finally a trapped kernel!
FreeBSD 6.0-BETA2/amd64 = "MII read timed out", "failed to start MII
autopoll", "MII without any phy!" - and we go on without a NIC

I tried to set relevant (IMHO) BIOS options to various alternatives -
without any success

Andrew P.