OK. I tried installing from a Debian Testing (Etch) netinstall I have and gotthe same problem. Here are some information:
uname -a
Code:
Linux farabi 2.6.12-1-386 #1 Tue Sep 27 12:41:08 JST 2005 i686 GNU/Linux
/etc/network/interfaces
Code:
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
   address 10.0.0.4
   netmask 255.255.255.0
   network 10.0.0.0
   broadcast 10.0.0.255
   gateway 10.0.0.138
   # dns-* options are implemented by the resolvconf package, if installed
   dns-nameservers 10.0.0.138
   dns-search lan
ping -c 3 10.0.0.138
Code:
PING 10.0.0.138 (10.0.0.138) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 10.0.0.4 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
From 10.0.0.4 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
From 10.0.0.4 icmp_seq=3 Destination Host Unreachable

--- 10.0.0.138 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 0 received, +3 errors, 100% packet loss, time 1998ms
, pipe 3
ping -c 3 10.0.0.4
Code:
PING 10.0.0.4 (10.0.0.4) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.0.0.4: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.057 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.4: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.033 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.4: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.052 ms

--- 10.0.0.4 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 1999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.033/0.047/0.057/0.011 ms
ping -c 3 127.0.0.1
Code:
PING 127.0.0.1 (127.0.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.064 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.056 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.016 ms

--- 127.0.0.1 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 1999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.016/0.045/0.064/0.021 ms
ifconfig
Code:
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:00:E2:4E:AC:F1  
          inet addr:10.0.0.4  Bcast:10.0.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:23 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:23 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:2016 (1.9 KiB)  TX bytes:2016 (1.9 KiB)
dmesg | grep eth
Code:
e100: eth0: e100_probe: addr 0x80120000, irq 11, MAC addr 00:00:E2:4E:AC:F1
e100: eth0: e100_watchdog: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex
NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
e100: eth0: e100_watchdog: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex
dmesg | grep e100
Code:
e100: Intel(R) PRO/100 Network Driver, 3.4.8-k2-NAPI
e100: Copyright(c) 1999-2005 Intel Corporation
e100: eth0: e100_probe: addr 0x80120000, irq 11, MAC addr 00:00:E2:4E:AC:F1
e100: eth0: e100_watchdog: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex
e100: eth0: e100_watchdog: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex
route
Code:
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
localnet        *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0
default         10.0.0.138      0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0