Goofy stuff with my wifi

So I got a new laptop a while ago. And I installed linux on it. And to my dismay, the wifi didn't work in linux. I got the right drivers and everything, but the laptop has a software kill switch - activated by a hotkey instead of a physical on/off switch. The kill switch defaults to off and try as I might, I could not get it to work in linux.

But I have a pcmcia wifi card, so I stuck that in there and installed the drivers for it. I've used it on my old laptop and I know it works. But it doesn't seem to work in the new laptop. I have no idea why. But with it installed, the killswitch for the internal card does work - it's pretty goofy since the pcmcia card uses totally different drivers.

So I'm not sure if it's the other drivers, the card itself, or both that are making the killswitch work. I suspect that the other drivers have some code to handle software kill switches, see the killswitch and handle it independently of the wifi card itself. So if I'm lucky, I can remove the pc card but keep the drivers and the internal card should work.

For anyone who's interested, the internal card is an intel proset wireless 3945 using the ipw3945 drivers. The pc card is a linksys something or other using the madwifi drivers. So if you have an intel card with a software kill switch and can't get the switch to work, try installing the madwifi drivers. The laptop is an HP Compaq 6510b.