A new Ubuntu/Linux user but fairly comfortable with the command line, etc.

My computer is a AMD Athlon with a Realtek 8185 chipset wireless NIC that worked fine under XP (Linksys WCG200 WEP AP works fine for PCs & Macs in the house no problem)

I've connected the linux box by ethernet & briefly after that the wireless even worked but I've been unable to reproduce that brief joyous period after a reboot.

NDISwrapper is successfully installed and associated with wlan0, the module is successfully inserted into the kernel & loads at boot (/etc/modules file is edited). All of that works fine.

The state of affairs is that the wireless NIC blinks amber and cannot scan to see the Linksys AccessPoint, ping, or successfully connect.

Here's some of the relevant information from iwconfig & ifconfig:
jrmiller@linuxmiller:~$ sudo iwconfig
[sudo] password for jrmiller:
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSIDff/any
Mode:Auto Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:-2147483648 dBm Sensitivity=0/3
RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

jrmiller@linuxmiller:~$ sudo ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:40:F4:AF:7A:E6
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0xe000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0E:2E:7A:39:7A
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:10 Memory:da005000-da005025


So, that's more or less where I am though I've tried many a google-inspired strategy I've had no luck. I'm hoping ultimately to have this computer reliable boot up into multiple users (e.g., kids' room) and have the wireless connection seamlessly work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to troubleshoot it with someone here in the forum because it seems that this is one of the better sites for informed linux sysadmins.

Thanks in advance

More info:
If I plug in the ethernet cable, I can connect to the WirelessAP & internet no problem. But, I can also see my wireless router now too! Once I manually configure the ethernetNIC (which updates the /etc/network/interfaces file) the linuxbox automatically rolls over to the wireless conxn & I can see the AP in ifconfig. But after removing the "roaming mode" in the Wired Connection in the Network GUI application and rebooting, I can no longer see the wireless networks (in the GUI or in ifconfig).

Just more info grist for the mill. Not sure what it means yet.

It gets a little weirder but I'm posting in case it's helpful for someone.

I can't for the life of me restart the computer and find the wireless AP. Instead, if I keep the ethernet wire in I can access the internet but never via the wireless NIC. It just acts as if there are no wireless signals to be had (when in fact I can even pick up the occasional neighbor SSID).

But - and here's the kicker - if I *shut down* the computer rather than reset. I can not only see the wirelessAP's but if I shut down & restart without the ethernet cable, I can jump right in (I have set the WEP 64-bit key somewhere along the way and it's picking it up from somewhere).

So, a solution exists for me.

If anybody wants to suss out why I need a full shutdown rather than a restart to reliably recapture the wireless SSID's I'd be glad to help troubleshoot.