7i76e No 7i76e Board found

I know this is an old topic but I just came across it in a search after I was having problems getting my 7i76e to be recognized after an OS reinsall (even though I've done this process probably 1/2 dozen times! So this is as much for my own documentation as it is to perhaps help others.)

My home network is on the 10.10.x.x system so I want my mesa card to be on the 192.168.x.x system. (Make sure the jumper settings on the mesa card are set for 192.168.1.121. This was the default when I got my card..several years ago.)

Setup your wired network as follows:
IPv4:
set to "manual"
address: 192.168.1.1
netmask: 255.255.255.0
gateway: 192.168.0.1

Note: nothing in the network settings gets set to 192.168.1.121. That's specified in the .hal file.

.hal file setting:
loadrt hm2_eth board_ip="192.168.1.121" config="num_encoders=1 num_pwmgens=0 num_stepgens=5

Hopefully this is helpful and not too redundant. (Guru's let me know if I've got anything wrong...)