LinuxQuestions.org - atheros wireless not recognized

My apologies if the answer to this is obvious, but despite days of trying, it isn't to me. The basic problem, I cannot make my laptop recognize my Dlink DWL-G50 (rev B2, Atheros chipset) wireless card. On boot, my card shows up from the cardmgr, but it is claimed to be unsupported.

Quote:

Code:

cardmgr[9191]: unsupported card in socket 1

cardmgr[9191]: product info "Atheros Communications" ...

cardmgr[9191]: manfid 0x0271, 0x0012 function: 6 (network)

...

ath0 does not exist

preup ath0 failed

And yes, I do have wireless built into the kernel, so that isn't the problem!
My diagnosis is that the drivers aren't in a card services file, so I try to loadthe madwifi drivers myself

Quote:

Code:

modprobe ath_pci

/lib/modules...ath_pci.o: init_module: No such device

Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module 

parameters, including invalaid IO or IRQ parameters.

so, the dmesg output on this is

Quote:

Code:

PCI:No IRQ known for interrupt pin A of device. Please try using pci=biosirq

ath_pci: cache line not set, forcing 8

ath_pci: cannot reserve PCI memory region

ath_pci: No devices found, driver not installed

The card is there, cardctl sees it, cardmgr sees it, it worked fine a few days ago. But somehow, the IRQ, etc isn't being set. I suspected that this had something to do with ACPI, so I've tried every version of on and off support in t he kernel,I've tried pci=biosirq at startup (but this card should be picked up by hotplug, it is cardbus 3.3V.) I've recompiled several times, even realized that it is an old bios, so ACPI is turned off unless I put in ACPI force, but this doesn't seem to matter, same problems. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I simply don't understand enough about how hotplug/pcmcia support interact with ACPI, although I suspect this is the problem.

Thanks in advance!