Can't ifconfig ax25 under Linux

[srbible@cs.nps.navy.mil (Steven R. Bible)]

I must be missing something obvious, and then again I didn't have troubles 
with earlier versions.

I've loaded a new machine with Linux version 1.1.75 and compiled in ver. 026 
of AX.25.  I have also included version 56 of net-tools.  In the past I 
simply ...

 axattach -s 19200 /dev/ttyS1 K6LY-9 &

then...

 ifconfig sl0 44.4.16.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 44.4.16.255 arp mtu 
256 up
 route add 44.4.16.0


The symptoms are that the TNC won't transmit when I telnet or ftp.  If I use 
CALL, it does transmit.  When I type ifconfig sl0 I see..

sl0   Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 96-6C-98-B2-40-40-12-F8-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
      inet addr:44.4.16.1  Bcast:44.4.16.0  Mask:255.255.255.0
      UP BROADCAST RUNNING  MTU:512  Metric:1
      RX packets:85 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
      TX packets:17 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
      Interrupt:0 Base address:0x0

Which tells me it doesn't know what kind of encapsulation and its hardware 
address are.  I've tried every permutation of ifconfig I can to get these 
parameters entered.  It seems that the man page and the actual ifconfig are 
not the same.  If you type the wrong thing ifconfig returns...

# ifconfig sl0 ax25 K6LY-9
ax25: Host name lookup failure
Usage: ifconfig [-a] [-i] [-v] interface
                [inet address]
                [ax25] [hw] address]
                [metric NN] [mtu NN]
                [trailers] [-trailers]
                [arp] [-arp]
                [netmask aa.bb.cc.dd]
                [dstaddr aa.bb.cc.dd]
                [mem_start NN] [io_addr NN] [irq NN]
                [[-] broadcast [aa.bb.cc.dd]]
                [[-]pointopoint [aa.bb.cc.dd]]
                [up] [down] ...

The man page does not list all of these options.  The man page is dated 06 
October 1993.

So how do I get the interface configured?  What changed from three months 
ago when I installed the same configuation on three machines and everything 
worked then?

Thanks,

Steve, N7HPR

srbible@cs.nps.navy.mil 
Naval Postgraduate School,  Monterey, CA 93943