Network Bridge on Sparc64

Hi
Trying to get a network bridge to work under 2.4.23 kernel. The kernel
compiles
fine and the bridge module ('bridge') loads successfully. I then used the
bridge-utils package to create the bridge:

#brctl addbr br0

and then try to add an interface to the bridge:

#brctl addif br0 eth0

An error then occurs:
# brctl addif br0 eth0
bridge br0 doesn't exist!
#

Although trying to add another bridge with the same name brings up an error:
# brctl addbr br0
device br0 already exists; can't create bridge with the same name
#

Moreover, trying to list the bridges gives an empty list:
# brctl show
bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces
#

I can, however, successfully delete the bridge br0!!

I've looked around the Internet, especially newsgroups, and haven't found
much on the topic. There was a patch for 2.4.17 kernel but i looks like the
patch
has been applied to this version of the kernel. I've also tried 2.4.17 but
with similar results.

It could be that I'm running this on a Ultra Sparc and thus any possible
bugs have not been seen before. Has anyone reading this newsgroup seen
similar results?

This has been bugging me for a while now. All help greatfully received!

Thanks

Andy