I have been trying to install my Linksys WPC11 wireless card in my Mandrake 8.2 laptop for some time now. I have installed the drivers (I think), but during startup I get the message:
starting wlan0 [FAILED]

I have been searching on the Internet, but there isn't a very good guide as to how to set this up. It is all a little from this site, a little from that site. Does anybody know of where I can find a good guide as to what needs to be configured? Or if you have any ideas as to how to get this working, I would appreciate it!

I have the WPC11, and it isnt too hard to setup. I don't know what driver you installed, but you should really get the stuff from here...
http://www.linux-wlan.com/linux-wlan/

Here's the readme...
ftp://ftp.linux-wlan.org/pub/linux-wlan-ng/README

Hope this is of help.

Hmm.... I also own a Linksys WPC11. I tried to get PCMCIA to work by compiling a custome kernel with pcmcia sources, and also wlan-ng sources, but no go.

Then I discovered that (under Mandrake 8.2) all I had to do was to install the pcmcia RPM, along with their default kernel and with a bit of fiddling around it worked. I think the most I had to do was to put "WIRLESS_MODE='Managed'", "WIRELESS_ESSID=" and "WIRELESS_ENC_KEY=" in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1.

The Mandrake kernel uses the 'wvlan.o' driver for my card. I tried lots of drivers with the vanilla kernel/pcmcia, and also with wlan-ng, but they did not work for me (quite possibly I did not try hard enough).

The darned thing is that my setup works for my home network where I don't use WEP (hence WIRELESS_ENC_KEy=off), but not at office, where WEP /is/ deployed.

I tried the wlan-ng sources... I did not quite manage it... It it too troublesome to compile a custom kernel for my laptop... The mandrake kernel works nicely (what with all these patches) but I failed to get PCMCIA working with a vanilla kernel + pcmcia sources/wlan-ng sources.

FWIW, I am using an Acer 620 laptop. If anyone has any experience on this (such as getting PCMCIA working with a vanilla kernel + whatever), I will be very glad to hear about them. Currently, I am stuck on using the wireless card only at home.

Parijat