Wireless card recognized but does not scan

[Chais]

I don't have access to a network with eth0 due to the way my home network is set up, so no. I'm still using the Ubuntu LiveCD in order to try and find a solution online.

I seem to have found what could be an important clue to solving this. According to the Debian wiki, modinfo ath5k should contain:

PCI: 10B7:0013 3Com Corporation AR5212 802.11abg NIC (3CRDAG675)
PCI: 168C:0007 Atheros Communications Inc. AR5000 802.11a Wireless Adapter
PCI: 168C:0011 Atheros Communications Inc. AR5210 802.11a NIC
PCI: 168C:0012 Atheros Communications Inc. AR5211 802.11ab NIC
PCI: 168C:0013 Atheros Communications Inc. Atheros AR5001X+ Wireless Network Adapter
PCI: 168C:0014 Atheros Communications Inc. (Device name unknown)
PCI: 168C:0015 Atheros Communications Inc. (Device name unknown)
PCI: 168C:0016 Atheros Communications Inc. (Device name unknown)
PCI: 168C:0017 Atheros Communications Inc. (Device name unknown)
PCI: 168C:0018 Atheros Communications Inc. (Device name unknown)
PCI: 168C:0019 Atheros Communications Inc. (Device name unknown)
PCI: 168C:001A Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC
PCI: 168C:001B Atheros Communications Inc. AR5413 802.11abg NIC
PCI: 168C:001C Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter
PCI: 168C:0023 Atheros Communications Inc. AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter
PCI: 168C:0024 Atheros Communications Inc. AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter
PCI: 168C:0207 Atheros Communications Inc. AR5210
PCI: 168C:1014 Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC
PCI: A727:0013 3Com Corporation 3CRPAG175 Wireless PC Card

However, it returns:

filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.30-2-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath5k/ath5k.ko
version:        0.6.0 (EXPERIMENTAL)
license:        Dual BSD/GPL
description:    Support for 5xxx series of Atheros 802.11 wireless LAN cards.
author:         Nick Kossifidis
author:         Jiri Slaby
srcversion:     EE1D08AEEC0159304E1A703
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000001Dsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000001Csv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000001Bsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000001Asv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000019sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000018sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000017sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000016sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000015sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000014sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00001014sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v000010B7d00000013sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000A727d00000013sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000013sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000012sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000011sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000007sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000207sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
depends:        mac80211,led-class,cfg80211
vermagic:       2.6.30-2-amd64 SMP mod_unload modversions 
parm:           nohwcrypt:Disable hardware encryption. (int)

[Chais]

Well, it looks like it's fixed itself.. somehow. I just rebooted to try and manually install a few packages to fix a few other packages I tried to install in order to use the compat-wireless ath5k driver that are now broken due to unmet dependencies beforehand (and fixing them via synaptic will only break my system ) and it seems to be working just fine. I'll not mark this as solved just yet because I'm unsure of how long this will last, but I'm still confused as to how this was an issue in the first place.