[CentOS] is there a way to make the kernel see a new ethernet device without rebooting?

>
> I wonder if it has to do with the type of NIC.  In my case, vmware says it's of
> type 'flexible', and the CentOS o.s uses the 'pcnet32' driver for it.

Try:
modprobe pcnet32

or if the module is already loaded
rmmod pcnet32
modprobe pcnet32

Radu