Sorry to bore everyone with the same question again.
The firmware foolishness has cost me numerous hours.

I'd like to know if anyone has succeeded on one of
the platforms I have access to.

I have succeeded in upgrading exactly 1 card using win98.
I cannot reproduce this.  If anyone knows why, I
can always try that again.

I don't have an XP laptop.
Hopefully by the time I get home, I'll have
a Mandrake 9.1 laptop, but I don't expect it to
have the kernel needed.

I do have right now a 2000 laptop,
and I did the whole procedure, and it looked good,
and the card remains the same.
This machine I have access to for about an hour.

It seems insane to buy a band-new laptop
to do a 10-minute task.

Thanks for your patience and advice.

Seth
PS I can't imagine, but desperate measure #953 is
buying an XP laptop.  I don't know if even that will help.
If anyone knows, that would also be helpful.