Running Mandrake 10.0 Community Edition, and trying to get a NetGear Wg511 to run. Having installed the isl3890 file and putting the card in, I then proceeded to set up the ACPI controls. With ACPI initialised an option appeared in the battery menu > 'enable PCMCIA' so I clicked that and light come on the card and everything is funky.

Except when I try to download. If I'm downloading, regardless of the browser, and running any other application, such as Kopete, first the orange 'connection' light will stop blinking and turn solid, then the green 'power' light starts to blink. Then the green light turns back on again and both lights remain lit. As soon as the green light begins to flash there is no connection to my router. I can solve the program by taking out the card and reinserting it, but I'm sure this isn't what's meant to happen =)

I'm running on an AMD64 3400+, mandrake 10.0, kernel version 2.6.3-7 (source installed)

results from ifconfig (when working):

...

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:09:5B:C2D:F0
inet addr:192.168.0.3 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::209:5bff:fec2:ddf0/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:298 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:181 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:161191 (157.4 Kb) TX bytes:27268 (26.6 Kb)
Interrupt:17

results from iwconfig (when working):

...

eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"Heathrow"
Mode:Managed Channel:11 Access Point: 00:09:5B:AC:FEC
Bit Rate:12Mb/s Tx-Power=31 dBm Sensitivity=20/200
Retry min limit:8 RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Encryption keyff
Link Quality:60/0 Signal level:-73 dBm Noise level:-159 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

When it stops working the ifconfig stays the same, but iwconfig reads:

eth1 no wireless extensions

Thanks in advance!

it is coming up as eth1, does that mean you have another NIC in your system?

eth0 is the ethernet cable socket, eth1 the PCMCIA slot.

btw, eth1 fails on startup, but directly after it claims that it has failed the lights turn on and it connects.

ok, are you using the wireless to access what? perhaps your dchp etc. is trying to go through the cable instead of your wireless?

The ethernet cable isn't pluffed in, only the wifi card. What's odd is that I've been scanning other forums and it seems like this card (Netgear WG511) shouldnt work at all with a kernel < 2.6.5

Maybe something's a little Odd :/

ok, got an idea, the eth1 fails because it starts the network then starts pcmcia, and finds the card? try doing a ifup eth1 and see what that gets you.