[Prism54-users] Trouble with WG511 on a PowerBook G4

[Daniel Erat]

I'm seeing very inconsistent behavior from a Netgear WG511 ("Made in
Taiwan") card on a PowerBook G4.  Well, it mostly doesn't work, but
I've managed to connect to my access point, a version 2 Linksys
WRT54G, a few times.

I believe that everything is set up correctly firmware-wise.  When I insert
the card, I see the following:

  PCI: Enabling device 0001:11:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
  eth2: resetting device...
  eth2: uploading firmware...
  eth2: firmware version: 1.0.3.0
  eth2: firmware upload complete
  eth2: interface reset complete
  eth2: no IPv6 routers present

The dhcp client daemon usually fails without finding any results, although
sometimes it receives a DHCPOFFER but no DHCPACK.

  Jul  2 00:54:27 localhost dhclient: Internet Software Consortium DHCP Client 2.0pl5
  ...
  Jul  2 00:54:29 localhost dhclient: eth1: unknown hardware address type 24
  Jul  2 00:54:29 localhost dhclient: sit0: unknown hardware address type 776
  Jul  2 00:54:29 localhost dhclient: Listening on LPF/eth2/00:09:5b:98:55:98
  Jul  2 00:54:29 localhost dhclient: Sending on   LPF/eth2/00:09:5b:98:55:98
  Jul  2 00:54:29 localhost dhclient: Sending on   Socket/fallback/fallback-net
  Jul  2 00:54:29 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
  Jul  2 00:54:34 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12
  Jul  2 00:54:46 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 16
  Jul  2 00:55:02 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
  Jul  2 00:55:16 localhost last message repeated 2 times
  Jul  2 00:55:23 localhost dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth2 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
  Jul  2 00:55:28 localhost dhclient: No DHCPOFFERS received.
  Jul  2 00:55:28 localhost dhclient: No working leases in persistent database. 
  Jul  2 00:55:28 localhost dhclient: Exiting.

(eth1 is the unsupported built-in Airport Extreme.)

When the card is inserted, its green light blinks 15 times in a row, stays
off for about 10 seconds, and then starts blinking again.  When I run
"iwlist eth2 scanning", I sometimes get a list of networks and other times
only get "No scan results".

I've configured my access point in as unrestrictive a manner as possible,
and after inserting and removing the card a few times, I can see my access
point and a neighbor's:

  eth2      Scan completed :
            Cell 01 - Address: 00:09:5B:99:DD:68
                      ESSID:""
                      Mode:Master
                      Encryption key:on
                      Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                      Signal level=-76 dBm  Noise level=-194 dBm
            Cell 02 - Address: 00:0F:66:9E:16:7C
                      ESSID:"TESTING"
                      Mode:Master
                      Encryption key:off
                      Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                      Quality:145/0

I'm unable to connect to it with the following in /etc/network/interfaces,
though:

  iface eth2 inet dhcp
          wireless_essid TESTING
          wireless_channel 1
          wireless_key open

And now, after reinserting the card a few more times, it's claiming to have
no scan results.

I'm running a 2.6.11.8 kernel on Debian testing.  My Linksys router has the
latest available firmware, and I've tried all of the different firmware
versions for the wireless card that I could find.  When I was running OS X,
I was able to connect to the Linksys router using the PowerBook's built-in
Airport Extreme interface, and I was previously able to connect to it using
this same Netgear card in a crappy HP P2-266 laptop.

Any ideas?