Beginning with Linux kernel 2.6.14, hostap-driver is now part of the kernel tree, and the old hostap-driver packages are only to be used with older kernels. As such, the hostap-driver should probably check kernel version and if >=2.6.14 notify the user to use kernel drivers instead. However, a potential problem arises from the fact that when using a PCMCIA card, the module is loaded with pcmcia-cs. To work with hostap-driver, the file /etc/pcmcia/hostap_cs.conf that specifies the supported cards is needed to be in system. Until pcmcia-cs mainline adds the support, I thing Gentoo's pcmcia-cs ebuild should be patched to include the hostap's config file in installed files now that the hostap-driver package is no longer used. (Alternate solution is that hostap-driver package does not install anything besides the hostap_cs.conf if kernel >=2.6.14..)
Starting with linux-2.6.13, you should use sys-apps/pcmciautils instead of sys-apps/pcmcia-cs - and pcmciautils doesn't need those configuration files. sys-apps/pcmciautils will be stabilized before 2.6.14 goes stable.
Will there be a notifier in pcmcia-cs suggesting a move to pcmciautils? Thanks for the information, this is the first time I have heard of this :)
Yes, this will be added once it goes stable.
