[TriLUG] 802.11b wierdness under Ubuntu

[Cristóbal Palmer]

Hi,

For the longest time I've had the following in my /etc/network/interfaces:

iface eth0 inet dhcp
        wireless-essid  UNC-1
        wireless-key1   XXXXXXXXXX

with the X's being a hex key. Wireless Just Worked (tm) on campus. Now
it only works if I go through a ridiculous shell session that looks
something like this:

sudo ifconfig eth0 up
sudo iwconfig eth0 key XXXXXXXXXX
sudo iwconfig eth0 essid UNC-1
sudo dhclient eth0

and then it works.

Can somebody point me to resources or give me tips on how to
troubleshoot why this might be? Better yet, what do I stick in my
/etc/network/interfaces so that it automagically works again?

For reference:

sudo lspci -v
<snip />
02:02.0 Network controller: AIRONET Wireless Communications Cisco
Aironet Wireless 802.11b
        Subsystem: AIRONET Wireless Communications Unknown device 5000
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
        I/O ports at 8000 [size=256]
        Memory at c0214000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Memory at c0400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at c0800000 [disabled] [size=2M]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [48] Vital Product Data

The APs are also some breed of Cisco. Also, this is under Ubuntu
Feisty Fawn. And before you recommend I try networkmanager, that's
"broken" for me too, and I'll try dealing with that on my next laptop,
which will hopefully have 802.11g or better. For now I'll just be
happy if I can get on this one 802.11b network and stay on it with
minimal fuss.

Thanks,
-- 
Cristóbal M. Palmer
administrator!!! please hope me!