OK, so the wifi drivers included with the 2.6 kernel DO support the prism2.x chipset.
However, as the Hermes/Orinoco drivers do support Prism2 based cards, "eg. Linksys WPC11"
they cannot change the card mode. eg moniter, promiscuous.
I originally compiled the 2.6 kernel with the Hermes and Prism2.x drivers (orinoco) but could not install the linux-wlan-ng package (which does have full support for prism2 based cards).
I had to recompile the kernel WITHOUT the Hermes/Orinoco drivers, but leave pcmcia-wireless support enabled. I then reinstalled the linux-wlan-ng package with no troubles.
Just setup your /etc/conf.d/net and /etc/conf.d/wlan.conf and run "/etc/init.d/./net.wlanX start"
where wlanX is your wifi card (eg eth0, eth1, wlan0, wlan1)

An easier method (easier for me, anyway) might have been to patch the orinoco_cs driver or use the lastest pre-release version. Thanks for posting what worked for you, though.

2Gnu: Do you know if there eve IS a patch for orinoco_cs that will support mode switching?
I spent 4 hours searching to no avail.
Also, I still think having config scripts for my various networks is slick, especially once you've scouted a given area and made a fairly complete map of local wifi networks to connect to. (I drive around the downtown core a lot, and require a connection everywhere i go)
Is there a decent ssid switcher that will automatically connect to a set of specified ssid's whenever you are within range, that works with the orinoco drivers?
If so, i would certainly prefer using the integrated kernel drivers as opposed to reinstalling linux-wlan-ng every time i recompile my kernel.

The only switching tool I've used is KWiFiManager. It's an app for KDE that allows you to set up and switch between different profiles.

iwlist is supposed to allow you to quickly scan for APs as well.

iwlist scanning to scan for networks

iwconfig to configure the network

man iwconfig to learm how


you might have to read the man page 10x, but it will work