orinoco wireless with WEP under kernel 2.6.14-2-686

[Richard Lyons <richard@the-place.net>]

I have been trying to get this setup configured for a while now, with
some help on debian-user, but seem to be missing a vital insight.

Thinkpad 600E, Kernel 2.6.14-2-686, sid, orinoco wifi card.
Wifi card talks to the Netgear DG834G router when security is disabled,
but when I turn WEP on it doesn't connect.

The following is a summary of what I have tried so far.  Apologies for 
the length.  Apologies too if I am going over old ground (I'm new to this
list).  

ifup eth0 gives

    etho: New link status: Connected (0001)
    Listening on LPF/eth0/00:02:2d:a6:07:bb
    Sending on   LPF/eth0/00:02:2d:a6:07:bb
    DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
    ...more similar...
    No DHCPOFFERS received.
    No working leases in persistent database.

    Exiting.

    Failed to bring up eth0.

/etc/network/interfaces has

    iface eth0 inet dhcp
    wireless-essid Coigxxxxxxxx
    wireless-key xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xx

iwconfig eth0 gives:

eth0      IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:""   Nickname "HERMES I"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.422 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate:11 Mb/s  Sensitivity:1/3
          Retry limit:4   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/92  Signal level=134/153  Noise level=134/153
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

and after giving these two commands:
# iwconfig eth0 essid xxxxxxxx
# iwconfig eth0 key xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xx
# iwconfig eth0
eth0      IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"Coixxxxxxxxx"   Nickname "HERMES I"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.422 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate:11 Mb/s  Sensitivity:1/3
          Retry limit:4   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xx   Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/92  Signal level=134/153  Noise level=134/153
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

I can "see" three Access Points the first of which is my target:
# iwlist eth0 scan
eth0      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address 00:0F:BF:51:D7:FC
                    ESSID:"Coixxxxxxx"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.427 GHz (Channel 4)
                    Signal level:-68 dBm  Noise level:-93dBm
                    Encryption key:on
          Cell 02 - Address...........
                    ...etc. for three cells in all

Working on the assumption the problem is missing modules,
# grep -i ieee80211 /boot/config-2.6.14-2-686
CONFIG_IEEE80211=m
# CONFIG_IEEE80211_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_IEEE80211_CRYPT_WEP=m
CONFIG_IEEE80211_CRYPT_CCMP=m
CONFIG_IEEE80211_CRYPT_TXIP=m

# modprobe ieee80211
# modprobe ieee80211_crypt_wep
# ifup eth0

still does not connect, even though the access point is now seen
and reported by 'iwconfig eth0'.

At this stage three additional modules are loaded as shown from
# lsmod
  ...
  orinoco_cs            13608  1
  orinoco               42804  1 orinoco_cs
  hermes                 7552  2 orinoco_cs,orinoco
  pcmcia                49732  6 hostap_cs,orinoco_cs
  ...
  ieee80211_crypt_wep    4896  0
  ieee80211             23272  0
  ieee80211_crypt        5252  3 hostap,ieee80211_crypt_wep,ieee80211
  ...

I have also tried modprobing
  orinoco_nortel
  orinoco_pci
  orinoco_plx
  orinoco_tmd
  spectrum_cs
  ieee80211_crypt_ccmp
  ieee80211_crypt_tkip

but these make no difference.

TIA for any help -- I am almost at the point of giving up...

-- 
richard