n22 ~ # modprobe ath5k n22 ~ # /etc/init.d/net.ath0 start * Starting ath0 * Starting wpa_supplicant on ath0 ... ioctl[SIOCSIWAUTH]: Operation not supported [ ok ]th param 4 value 0x0 - * Starting wpa_cli on ath0 ... [ ok ] * Backgrounding ... This is my card : n22 ~ # lspci -v | grep Ath 02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01) Here are the config settings: n22 ~ # grep ath0 /etc/conf.d/net config_ath0=( "dhcp" ) dhcp_ath0="nontp nosendhost" dhcpcd_ath0="-L -t 25" and this is my system : n22 ~ # uname -a Linux n22 2.6.25-gentoo-r6 #9 Fri Jul 18 21:42:07 CEST 2008 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1700MHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux n22 ~ # equery -q l wpa [I--] [ ] net-wireless/wpa_supplicant-0.5.7 (0) Reproducible: Always n22 ~ # emerge --info Portage 2.1.4.4 (default/linux/x86/2008.0, gcc-4.1.2, glibc-2.6.1-r0, 2.6.25-gentoo-r6 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.25-gentoo-r6 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1700MHz Timestamp of tree: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:45:02 +0000 ccache version 2.4 [enabled] app-shells/bash: 3.2_p33 dev-java/java-config: 1.3.7, 2.1.6 dev-lang/python: 2.5.2-r5 dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r6 dev-util/ccache: 2.4-r7 sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.11.1 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.18.1-r2 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.61-r2 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.18-r3 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.0-r4 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.26 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.23-r3 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium-m -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/share/config" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/php/apache2-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/terminfo /etc/udev/rules.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium-m -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="ccache distlocks metadata-transfer parallel-fetch sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://de-mirror.org/distro/gentoo/ http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/gentoo/ http://gentoo.mneisen.org/ http://213.186.33.37/gentoo-distfiles/" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1" LINGUAS="de en" MAKEOPTS="-j 2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.de.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X a52 aac acl acpi alsa apache2 arts berkdb bzip2 cairo caps cddb cli cracklib crypt css cups dri dvd dvdr dvdread dynamicplugin encode exif fam fastbuild fortran gdbm gif gpm gtk hdaps hyphenation iconv ipv6 isdnlog jai java javascript jimi joystick jpeg kde logrotate mad mbox midi mikmod mmap mmx mmxext mp2 mp3 mp4 mpeg mudflap mysql ncurses nls nntp nptl nptlonly nsplugin ogg opengl openmp pam pcre pdf perl png ppds pppd python readline real reflection session spl sse sse2 ssl subversion svg tcpd tiff tk truetype unicode userlocales visualization vorbis wav wifi win32codecs wmf workbench x264 x86 xcomposite xml xorg xpm zlib" ALSA_CARDS="intel8x0 intel8x0m" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic auth_digest authn_anon authn_dbd authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock dbd deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers ident imagemap include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation proxy proxy_ajp proxy_balancer proxy_connect proxy_http rewrite setenvif so speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse joystick evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="de en" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="vga radeon" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
upstram reported, that the message is harmless and removed in recent versions.
forgot to add upstream bug number : http://w1.fi/bugz/show_bug.cgi?id=278