Hubless (point-to-point) Ethernet - how to set up

Ive got a RH-7.2 laptop with 2 PC-card Ethernets, which Im trying to
 hook up in a HUBLESS config (with a crossover cable) to a RH-9 desktop.

Ive searched the net with the 3 terms on subject-line, found several 
'its-easy'
assertions, and a lot of commercial blather, but nothing sufficiently 
detailed to help me.

As I write this, the crossover is not in use.  I also dont have a hub 
here - my
NICs are unconnected, and therefore no IPs are assigned.  I suspect this 
might
be due to a PC-card initialization characteristics, as the PCI card gets 
its static
IP under the same circumstances.  It might also (WAG) be due to my setup
using DCHP on the PC-cards main device (eth0, eth1), with aliases 
(eth0:1, eth1:1)
to get the static addys.  Any comments ?


[jimc@harpo jimc]$ ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 brd 127.255.255.255 scope host lo
2: eth0: <BROADCAST> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 100
    link/ether 00:00:86:08:de:da brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: eth1: <BROADCAST> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 100
    link/ether 00:10:4b:df:00:d8 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff


The RH-9 NIC shows on lspci as an EN-1207D-TX1, which after some fiddling
I got the rtl8139too driver module to recognize.  FWIW, the 10 Mbit LED
came on once, while I was fiddling (many modprobe -t net \*), but not 
since I added
the /etc/modules.conf entry for eth0 and rebooted.

Also, a couple other tangentially related Qs.

during laptop boot, one eth FAILS - delayed, other PASSES.  Theyre 2 
different
manufacturers (so different drivers), and one is a combo-card (it has a 
modem).
Which reason might explain difference ?

LED on laptop eth turns on when I plugg in the crossover to the desktop, but
the desktop LED doesnt.  What would this tell the truly knowledgeable ?

thx in advance,
[email protected]

ps - pls cc me at above