netgear ma101 makes me go @$%!

[Muser]

this stupid card which i use to get to my wireless network is so frustrating. when ever i have to shut down (which is thankfully rare) the card will not work. if i unplug it and replug it in (or when i start up) it get this message from /var/log/messages:

Nov 13 21:39:21 localhost ifup: at76c503 device wlan0 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization.
Nov 13 21:39:21 localhost network: Bringing up interface wlan0:  failed

the only way i can get this stupid thing to work is to, sigh, boot in windows, reboot w/out shutting down and then boot back until Mandrake. so my two questions are: Why is it doing this and how do I fix it?

[Dolda2000]

It's probably that it doesn't come with any firmware and demands firmware loading upon plugin. Since you don't shut down after booting into Windows, the firmware loaded by the Windows driver stays in the card.

Some W-LAN cards are known to do this. My Intel Pro/Wireless 2011B PCMCIA card does the same thing. I had to get hold of the firmware and make sure the driver loaded it. Also, that card's firmware loader wasn't supported by the default driver, so I had to get the latest CVS version of the driver as well. I don't know if that goes for your card as well.

The hardest part is probably getting hold of the actual firmware. I'm afraid I can't help you with that.