I think I've cleared up the problems with failing to associate (or pass data after associating) described in #21 as artifacts of the way I was switching between the rt3090sta "workaround" module and rt2800pci - the module under test - by use of manual rmmod/modprobe. Ensuring only one module ever talked to the hardware per boot made things quite reliable.
I don't think I encountered the power-management problems you described with 2.6.38, which is reassuring.
I'll respond to #21 and #22 in parts for clarity:
I think I've cleared up the problems with failing to associate (or pass data after associating) described in #21 as artifacts of the way I was switching between the rt3090sta "workaround" module and rt2800pci - the module under test - by use of manual rmmod/modprobe. Ensuring only one module ever talked to the hardware per boot made things quite reliable.
I don't think I encountered the power-management problems you described with 2.6.38, which is reassuring.