Problems connecting using Atheros/madwifi

[Derek Atkins <warlord MIT EDU>]

Dan,

> What you need to do to debug this is the following...  In a separate
> window, run the command "watch -n 1 iwconfig ath0" and let that run
> while NM is trying to associate with the AP.  Look at the MAC address
> that the card reports, and if it changes to FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF too often
> during the link check, then we need to figure out what to do.
[ snip ]
> So, if you could do the "watch" thing, that would be great, and report
> teh results, ie do you see the MAC address be FF:FF:FF... for most of
> the period when NetworkManager tries to connect to it?  Dos it usually
> stay at the access points MAC?

I did this..  I'm running FC3 with all the current updates (as of yesterday).  I
ran this test and yes, it changes to FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF very often during the
link check.

lspci -v reports:

02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Commnuications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC
(rev 01)
    Subsystem: Unknown device 17ab:8331
    Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 11
    Memory at c0210000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
    Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2


I also see the following information in /var/log/messages:

NetworkManager: Warning: the wireless card (ath0) requires too much time for
scans.  Its driver needs to be fixed.

When I try to connect from NetworkManagerInfo I get a warning message:

The request wireless network 'my-network' does not appear to be in range.  A
different wireless network will be used if any are available.

However, if I shut down NetworkManager, set the ssid by hand, and ifup the
interface, it works just fine with "my-network".

FWIW, I'm using Madwifi-0.9.4.12, if that matters.

Any suggestions?  Workarounds?  Things I can do to help debug?

-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord MIT EDU                        PGP key available