still can't load firmware (please help)

Hello again,

sorry to post this again but, despite a couple of persons
answering me privately, the problem was not solved and 
it's three months (yeah!!! :-( ) I can't use this new
PC I've bought.

After one month of struggling I finally managed 
to purchase an SMC 2802W. Unfortunately, I don't
manage to load the firmware. I have a Fedora Core 2 box
(quite stock) and made a number of attempts, both with
the stock kernel and custom kernel (2.6.7) compiled
as per the README.html on prism54.org site.

I enclose the output of various commands in order
to clarify the problem.

Please help me, I don't know what else to do.
Franco
--------------------------------------

#> modprobe firmware_class
#> modprobe prism54

(this gives no output and lsmod shows them)

#> ksyms
ksyms: QM_MODULES: Function not implemented

#> service network restart
Shutting down loopback interface:                          [  OK  ]
Setting network parameters:                                [  OK  ]
Bringing up loopback interface:                            [  OK  ]
Bringing up interface eth0:

prism54: request_firmware() failed for 'isl3890'
eth0: could not upload firmware ('isl3890')

Determining IP information for eth0...
interface 'eth0' not found
Error for wireless request "Set Bit Rate" (8B20) :
    SET failed on device eth0 ; Input/output error.
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory
 failed.

Also, if I do:
   
#> cat /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug

sometimes (depending maybe on the kernel I'm using) I get 
/sbin/hotplug

and other times I get:
/bin/true

In any case, 

#> /sbin/hotplug
Usage: /etc/hotplug.d/default/default.hotplug AgentName [AgentArguments]
AgentName values on this system:  dasd firmware ieee1394 input net pci scsi
tape usb

#> ls -l /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/
total 192
-r--r--r--  1 root root 91020 May  8  2003 isl3880
-r--r--r--  1 root root 91020 May  8  2003 isl3890

(Ive tried with both version 1.0.3, 1.0.4 from your site and
also 1.0.14 (?) from my card package.... 

My /etc/fstab contains this line:

	none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0

#> ls -l /sys/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  31 root root 0 Jun 27  2004 block
drwxr-xr-x   8 root root 0 Jun 26 23:13 bus
drwxr-xr-x  18 root root 0 Jun 26 23:13 class
drwxr-xr-x   6 root root 0 Jun 27  2004 devices
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root 0 Jun 27  2004 firmware
drwxr-xr-x  30 root root 0 Jun 26 23:13 module
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 0 Jun 27  2004 power
#> ls -l /sys/firmware/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 0 Jun 27  2004 acpi


(various file permissions)

#> ls -ld /usr
drwxr-xr-x  14 root root 4096 May 20 01:08 /usr
#> ls -ld /usr/lib
drwxr-xr-x  119 root root 81920 Jun 26 00:18 /usr/lib
#> ls -ld /usr/lib/hotplug/
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 Jun 26 00:18 /usr/lib/hotplug/
#> ls -ld /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 Jun 26 01:12 /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/
#> ls -l /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/
-r--r--r--  1 root root 91020 May  8  2003 isl3880
-r--r--r--  1 root root 91020 May  8  2003 isl3890


#> lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400/KT600 AGP] Host Bridge (rev 80)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c940 10/100/1000Base-T [Marvell] (rev 12)
00:0a.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation Intersil ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette] (rev 01)
00:0d.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC15 MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)
00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [K8T800 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:13.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy (rev 04)
00:13.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy MIDI/Game port (rev 04)
00:13.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Creative Labs SB Audigy FireWire Port (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x] (rev a4)

#> lspci -v

00:0a.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation Intersil ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Standard Microsystems Corp [SMC]: Unknown device 2802
	Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 11
	Memory at e6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
	Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1



CONFIG_FW_LOADER

is 'y' or 'm' in every .config