Debian Etch, 2511CD pc card(s), no PRI f/w?-doubtful, Solution

[bk]

I'm certainly no expert but the problem had to do with pcmcia system and available io ports. I disabled a (non-usable) modem in the BIOS, and also un-commented this line in /etc/pcmcia/config.opts:

include port 0x3c0-0x3d2

and after a re-boot, the 2511cd with hostap started working normally.

...as a side note, a file in /etc/udev/rules.d
(XXX_persistent-net.rules) was edited/commented after the above "fix" to remove a line which caused udev to rename wlan0 to (the somewhat ugly) wlan0_rename. (the line was apparently a scrap left over from some testing with the orinoco drivers)

Thanks for humoring me here.