NetworkManager and rtl8180 on debian "etch"

["David L. Emerson" <demerson3x angelbase com>]

I'm trying to get NetworkManager-kde working with my wireless card
(Linksys WPC11 v.4 / rtl8180 chipset)

knetworkmanager can now detect the card, scan for networks, and prompt 
for a wep key if needed.  However, when trying to connect to any 
wireless network (encrypted or not) it stalls at 28%:
"Activation Stage: Configuring device".

Here's a paste of dmesg:

IEEE802.11: Associating with belkin54g
IEEE802.11: Stopping scan
IEEE802.11: Sending authentication request
IEEE802.11: Received authentication response
IEEE802.11: Sending association request
IEEE802.11: Received association response
IEEE802.11: Successfully associated
rtl8180: Joining the BSS
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready

...after about a minute, it resets the card and repeats the above.

The card+driver work "ok", and can connect to unencrypted and 
wep-encrypted networks, using debian's /etc/network/interfaces and 
ifconfig.

(I commented out most of /etc/network/interfaces (except loopback lo) so 
that NetworkManager can work on debian;  I read somewhere that debian 
modified networkmanager so as not to touch interfaces listed 
in /etc/network/interfaces -- and indeed, prior to doing the 
commenting, networkmanager could not see the interfaces at all)

If it's relevant: I'm using kernel 2.6.18, with the (free) rtl-wifi 
driver.  I recently wrote a Debian entry for their FAQ:
http://rtl-wifi.sourceforge.net/wiki/FAQ#Debian

Thanks!
~David.