Problem detecting PCMCIA wireless network card..

[acoustic_epiphany]

Hi all!

I got tired of having to use ndiswrapper with my linksys so I bought myself a Netgear WG511T which I had read is well supported in linux.
I'm sure it is, but the computer is having trouble even detecting the card in the first place it looks like.

I'm not real knowledgeable when it get's this deep but I'll provide what info I can.

This is a Dell Inspiron 2650 with a fresh install of Debian etch and everything upgraded. Running stock kernel 2.6.16-2-686.

An excerpt from lspci:

02:04.0 CardBus bridge: 02 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller
03:00.0 Non-VGA unclassified device: Unknown device 0800:0000 (rev 08)

The last one is of course the WG511T.

"pccardctl info" returns:

PRODID_1=""
PRODID_2=""
PRODID_3=""
PRODID_4=""
MANFIND=0000,0000
FUNCID=255

I tried adding pci=assign-busses as the PCMCIA-HOWTO suggested but that didn't help.
Also tried pci=routeirq just for fun.

I have actually been able to detect it correctly with lspci a few times, but it is only after being powered off for a while, when running on battery power, and it only lasts a minute at most before it reverts back to detecting it as unspecified and unknown.

I've tried forcing both madwifi and ndiswrapper drivers to use it but no luck.

If anyone needs more info let me know..
I have no way of getting info right off the laptop (floppy what? oh I threw those away 6 years ago..) but I'll type everything out if I have to.

Thanks in advance for any help,
Brian

[acoustic_epiphany]

No ideas? Just wanted to bump this once cause if I don't get it working in a day or two I'm going to return it.

Can always buy a different one but I hate to give up on a problem..

-Brian

[deltabravo]

Hello Brian, type Madwifire into Google, its a site run purely for wireless geeks that supplies drivers ( their own, and some modified oem ones) for almost any type wireless, its free, informative, very proffesionally setup. I hope this helps, kind regards, deltabravo.

[acoustic_epiphany]

Hello,

Thanks for the reply. Glad to know that people look through the buried posts even.

Well I got my money back on the card. Still have it though since postage would've cost too much and whatnot.

Anyways, I did have the madwifi drivers installed, and in fact am using them on my new card, a D-Link wna-2330, which works perfectly by the way.

Unless anyone else has a better idea I will assume that the hardware is just bad. Especially since when I researched the Netgear I saw nothing but great reviews as far as it's compatability with Linux.

Thanks,
Brian