2.6.16 update, lost wireless - seems not a udev issue

[Richard Boyce <boycer@u.washington.edu>]

Hi,

I recently upgraded Debian unstable and installed the 2.6.16-12 
linux-image. All seems well except I am unable to bring up my wireless 
connection. ifup freezes when it tries to run dhcpd on the wireless card:

richhnix# ifup -v eth2
Configuring interface eth2=eth2 (inet)
run-parts --verbose /etc/network/if-pre-up.d
run-parts: executing /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/wireless-tools

dhcpcd                eth2

---------

syslog and dmesg report "ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): ethWifi: link is not 
ready". Interestingly, the ethernet card works 100% of the time. I 
looked into changing udev rules (per 
http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Debian/2006-04/msg02288.html 
and thread) but this seems taken care of by the current version of udev 
which generated a rules file:
richhnix# cat /etc/udev/rules.d/z25_persistent-net.rules
# This file was automatically generated by the /lib/udev/write_net_rules
# program, probably run by the persistent-net-generator.rules rules file.
#
# You can modify it, as long as you keep each rule on a single line.

# UNKNOWN device (/class/net/eth0) (3c59x)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVER=="?*", SYSFS{address}=="00:0b:db:98:93:db", 
NAME="eth0"

# UNKNOWN device (/class/net/eth1)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVER=="?*", 
SYSFS{address}=="32:4f:c0:00:11:4c:0c:61", NAME="eth1"

# UNKNOWN device (/class/net/eth2)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVER=="?*", SYSFS{address}=="00:02:2d:7e:bd:1a", 
NAME="eth2"

-----------

I tried to change the name of the wifi device to be different from 
kernel name 'eth2' and so changed it to 'ethWifi' in the above file:

...
# UNKNOWN device (/class/net/eth2)
#SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVER=="?*", SYSFS{address}=="00:02:2d:7e:bd:1a", 
NAME="eth2"
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVER=="?*", SYSFS{address}=="00:02:2d:7e:bd:1a", 
NAME="ethWifi"

and then changed /etc/network/interfaces:
...
iface ethWifi inet dhcp
...

---------

After reboot, I get exactly the same problem; only with 'ethWifi' 
instead of 'eth2'. Keeping the same name but following the  suggested 
procedure in 
http://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2006/01/msg00399.html I installed 
ifrename and wrote iftab to use the mac that was in the above 
persistent...rules file:
richhnix# cat /etc/iftab
ethWifi mac 00:02:2d:7e:bd:1a

then restarted ifrename - same problem, no change. I am stumped; do I 
have the wrong mac? I tried macchanger and it reports:
richhnix$ macchanger ethWifi
Current MAC: 00:02:2d:7e:bd:1a [wireless] (Lucent (WaveLAN, Orinoco, 
Silver/Gold), Orinoco (Silver, PC24E), Buffalo and Avaya)

I am out of ideas. Most other postings (non-debian) seem to associate 
this with various driver problems on bleeding edge hardware. I have had 
this wifi card running for 3 years! iwconfig sees it and my access point 
fine:

ethWifi   IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:""  Nickname:"HERMES I"
         Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 00:20:E0:1D:9A:F5
         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

I updated dhcpcd to 1:2.0.3-1 and still have same problem. What 
information would help? Any ideas?

thanks,
Richard Boyce