[wplug] Wireless cards II.

[Bryce Lynch]

Well, it happened again.  The problem's not fixed - another wireless NIC
stopped working.  But I've got a better idea of the parameters of the
problem:

First, WEP has to be enabled.  When it is (both at home and at work) the
card will synch with the WAP and allow access for four, maybe five
sessions (boots of the computer).  After that, a link will go up for about
five minutes, at which time it quits completely.  /sbin/ifconfig shows
that the interface is configured properly; /usr/local/sbin/iwconfig shows
the proper configuration, but the MAC of the WAP is 44:44:44:44:44:44.
Signal quality is 0/xx, strength and noise are between 130 and 150 each.

Second, these are the drivers that come with the v2.4.[18,19] kernel.  I
havn't tried the PCMCIA-CS drivers yet, but the last time I did I couldn't
get them to recognise any card I tried.  Maybe I'll try tonight.

Third, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the cards.  I've
tried a D-Link DWL-650, a Lucent Orinoco Gold, and a Lucent Orinoco
Silver, and it happens with each and every one of them.  All of these
cards seem to work on Windows 2000 and XP laptops at work, though.  This
isn't a good sign - it suggests a hardware problem on my laptop.

If I deactivate WEP on the AP and comment out support in the
/etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts file, reboot, and try again, everything works
fine.  I've tried cycling keys with `iwconfig eth0 key [x]`, I've tried
turning restricted mode on and off (`iwconfig eth0 key
[open,restricted]`), I've looked at /proc/net/wireless (the only odd thing
I can see in there is that the status column has the value '0000').
Nothing helpful appears in the system logs
(/var/log/[debug,messages,syslog]), though something odd does appear in
the kernel message buffer: "Error -110 writing Tx descriptor to BAP".
I'm running down what that could mean but no luck yet.

Oddly enough, if I swap out the wireless card with a hard link and don't
change the software configs, I can get on with no trouble (which is how
I'm writing this).

I'm completely lost.

--
Encrypted private e-mail preferred.
public key: http://users.telerama.com/~bryce/gpg.key

"Take that smile off your face/wipe that tear from your eye/
	don't say you're sorry for me..."  --Gary Numan, _Stormtrooper In Drag_