LinuxQuestions.org - was working fine... but weird problems with wireless

I'm using the madwifi drivers (rev. 2005318) to power my d-link DWL-G520 wireless PCI adapter. The problem lies not in my connection to the wireless router nor does it lie in setting up the drivers. The problem I have is a weird one that occurs occasionally during times when my computer is on, and always when the computer boots.

I never quite figured out how to load my wireless information at startup, so I just do it manually. It's not a big deal, except for my unorthodox method of carrying out this task. I compiled my kernel such that the module ath_pci (subsequently loading ath0 and wlan) is available at startup. I know because

Code:

root@ZAXCOMP:/home/zax# lsmod|grep ath

ath_pci                53152  0

ath_rate_amrr          7044  1 ath_pci

wlan                  107484  4 wlan_wep,ath_pci,ath_rate_amrr

ath_hal              146640  2 ath_pci

root@ZAXCOMP:/home/zax#

but when I type in the following at startup, I get this error:

Code:

root@ZAXCOMP:/home/zax# iwlist ath0 scan

ath0      Interface doesn't support scanning : Operation not supported

This is a major problem, b/c not only can I not scan for my network, but even if I plug in ALL of the information regarding the router, nothing is identified. So, I figured out how to fix this, but it requires the x-server (something that bothers me). I go to the kwifi-manager, go to configuration editor, then I click the buttons that say "Load these settings" and "activate."

Now, when I try scanning, it yields:

Code:

root@ZAXCOMP:/home/zax# iwlist ath0 scan

ath0      Scan completed :

          Cell 01 - Address: 00:0F:B5:64:A4:A4

                    ESSID:"NETGEAR"

              ............................................

My question is: what's up with the drivers that don't allow me to scan on startup, and how can I fix this problem so that this task is allowed???