disabling proprietay drivers => wireless works (and not otherwise!)

Observed in HP Pavilion dv9000 laptop. Wireless is Atheros AR242 x802.11abg (see below).
O.S: Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex beta, (released october 2008).

This wireless didn't work for me in Hardy (a lot of tweaking needed, as I saw in the forums).
In Intrepid It works, but in the weirdest possible way: I had to untick the "Support for atheros wireless cards..." in System -> Admin -> Hardware drivers (approximate words, sorry, I'm running a localized ubuntu). Then it works!! With the driver enabled (as I find it at the beginning), it doesn't work.

Obviously the expected behavior would be the opposite: to enable the driver so that the device works.

As an additional clue: I can't enable the proprietary nVidia drivers either from this menu. I can in hardy (perhaps I should file a separate bug on this). Also, once disabled, I can't enable the atheros driver again from this menu.

Additional information on my system follows (lspci).

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jc@jc-laptop:~$ lspci -vvnn
00:00.0 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 Memory Controller [10de:0444] (rev a3)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Capabilities: <access denied>

00:01.0 ISA bridge [0601]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 LPC Bridge [10de:0442] (rev a3)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle+ MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Region 0: I/O ports at 1d00 [size=256]

00:01.1 SMBus [0c05]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 SMBus [10de:0446] (rev a1)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
 Region 0: I/O ports at 3080 [size=64]
 Region 4: I/O ports at 3040 [size=64]
 Region 5: I/O ports at 3000 [size=64]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: nForce2_smbus
 Kernel modules: i2c-nforce2

00:01.3 Co-processor [0b40]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 SMU [10de:0447] (rev a1)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0 (750ns min, 250ns max)
 Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 255
 Region 0: Memory at f2200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]

00:02.0 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 USB Controller [10de:0454] (rev a3) (prog-if 10)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0 (750ns min, 250ns max)
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 18
 Region 0: Memory at f2486000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
 Kernel modules: ohci-hcd

00:02.1 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 USB Controller [10de:0455] (rev a3) (prog-if 20)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0 (750ns min, 250ns max)
 Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 17
 Region 0: Memory at f2488000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
 Kernel modules: ehci-hcd

00:06.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 Ethernet [10de:0450] (rev a3)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0 (250ns min, 5000ns max)
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 20
 Region 0: Memory at f2487000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
 Region 1: I/O ports at 30e0 [size=8]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: forcedeth
 Kernel modules: forcedeth

00:07.0 Audio device [0403]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 High Definition Audio [10de:044a] (rev a1)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0 (500ns min, 1250ns max)
 Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 21
 Region 0: Memory at f2480000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
 Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

00:08.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 PCI bridge [10de:0449] (rev a1) (prog-if 01)
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Bus: primary=00, secondary=07, subordinate=07, sec-latency=64
 Memory behind bridge: f2100000-f21fffff
 Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ <SERR- <PERR-
 BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA+ VGA- MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
  PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr+ DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
 Capabilities: <access denied>

00:09.0 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 IDE [10de:0448] (rev a1) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
 Subsystem: Device [f03c:30cf]
 Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0 (750ns min, 250ns max)
 Region 0: [virtual] Memory at 000001f0 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
 Region 1: [virtual] Memory at 000003f0 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
 Region 2: [virtual] Memory at 00000170 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
 Region 3: [virtual] Memory at 00000370 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
 Region 4: I/O ports at 30c0 [size=16]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: pata_amd
 Kernel modules: pata_amd

00:0a.0 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 SATA Controller [10de:045d] (rev a3) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO])
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0 (750ns min, 250ns max)
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 23
 Region 0: I/O ports at 30f8 [size=8]
 Region 1: I/O ports at 30ec [size=4]
 Region 2: I/O ports at 30f0 [size=8]
 Region 3: I/O ports at 30e8 [size=4]
 Region 4: I/O ports at 30d0 [size=16]
 Region 5: Memory at f2484000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: ahci
 Kernel modules: ahci

00:0b.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation Device [10de:045b] (rev a1)
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx+
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
 Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
 Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- <SERR- <PERR-
 BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA+ VGA- MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
  PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
 Kernel modules: shpchp

00:0c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 PCI Express bridge [10de:045a] (rev a1)
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx+
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
 Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=0
 Memory behind bridge: f2000000-f20fffff
 Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ <SERR- <PERR-
 BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA+ VGA- MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
  PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
 Kernel modules: shpchp

00:0d.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 PCI Express bridge [10de:0458] (rev a1)
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx+
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
 Bus: primary=00, secondary=05, subordinate=05, sec-latency=0
 I/O behind bridge: 00004000-00004fff
 Memory behind bridge: cc000000-ceffffff
 Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d0000000-00000000dfffffff
 Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- <SERR- <PERR-
 BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA+ VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
  PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
 Kernel modules: shpchp

00:0e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP65 PCI Express bridge [10de:0459] (rev a1)
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx+
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
 Bus: primary=00, secondary=09, subordinate=09, sec-latency=0
 I/O behind bridge: 00005000-00005fff
 Memory behind bridge: f0000000-f1ffffff
 Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000f2600000-00000000f27fffff
 Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- <SERR- <PERR-
 BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA+ VGA- MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
  PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
 Kernel modules: shpchp

00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration [1022:1100]
 Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Capabilities: <access denied>

00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map [1022:1101]
 Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-

00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller [1022:1102]
 Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-

00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control [1022:1103]
 Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: k8temp
 Kernel modules: k8temp

03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:137b]
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
 Region 0: Memory at f2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: ath5k_pci
 Kernel modules: ath5k, ath_pci

05:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8400M GS [10de:0427] (rev a1)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 15
 Region 0: Memory at ce000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
 Region 1: Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
 Region 3: Memory at cc000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M]
 Region 5: I/O ports at 4000 [size=128]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel modules: nvidiafb

07:05.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller [1180:0832] (rev 05) (prog-if 10)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 64 (500ns min, 1000ns max), Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 5
 Region 0: Memory at f2100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: ohci1394
 Kernel modules: ohci1394

07:05.1 SD Host controller [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter [1180:0822] (rev 22)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 64, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
 Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 7
 Region 0: Memory at f2100800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
 Kernel modules: sdhci-pci

07:05.2 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller [1180:0843] (rev 12)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 64, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
 Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 10
 Region 0: Memory at f2100c00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: ricoh-mmc
 Kernel modules: ricoh_mmc

07:05.3 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter [1180:0592] (rev 12)
 Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30cf]
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 64, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
 Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 10
 Region 0: Memory at f2101000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
 Capabilities: <access denied>

07:05.4 System peripheral [0880]: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller [1180:0852] (rev ff) (prog-if ff)
 !!! Unknown header type 7f
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