tulip driver compiled in, how to set options? (BUG in 2.4.20-rc1?)

Dear all,

can some kind soul please explain me how to set some of the options (e.g. media type) with a compiled-in tulip driver?
I know this should work with "ether=0,0,media,.." because (as most drivers) the media type is set via dev->mem_start. Only it does not work. I tried to find out where the mem_start value is set in the kernel-source, starting from alloc_etherdev up to its usage in the driver, but cannot see it. Effectively I printk'ed it, and it is always zero.
Can someone please have a quick look if this does work at all, anywhere, anyhow
...
This is kernel 2.4.20-rc1, the whole issue is around lines 1650 in drivers/net/tulip/tulip_core.c

Regards,
Stephan