[Voyage-linux] Wifi trouble: rt73usb gets DHCP assigned but link is 'Not-Associated'

[(spam-protected)]

Hello,

 using a D-Link DWL-G122 rev c1, Ralink chipset, voyage 0.6.1:
The ALIX 1c is client for wifi, using DHCP.

I'm getting the beginning of a link, DHCP address assigned, routes added,
 but iwconfig reports Not-Associated. Tried with WEP and without WEP.
 Open authentication, no MAC filter.

 Plugging the device into my ubuntu 8.10 PC, there is no trouble.

 Details below.

 Has anyone had success with rt73usb based wifi in Voyage 0.6.1 ?
 Any ideas of the problem?

thanks,
Rodney

details:
dmesg extract:
Registered led device: rt73usb-phy0:radio
Registered led device: rt73usb-phy0:assoc
Registered led device: rt73usb-phy0:quality
usbcore: registered new interface driver rt73usb
..
firmware: requesting rt73.bin
...
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

voyage:~# ifconfig wlan0
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:17:9a:77:16:27
          inet addr:192.168.1.4  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:960 (960.0 B)  TX bytes:1576 (1.5 KiB)

voyage:~# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"earth"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Tx-Power=16 dBm
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B
          Encryption key:7879-7A78-797A-7879-7A78-797A-31
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

voyage:~# lsmod|grep rt
exportfs                3584  1 aufs
ledtrig_heartbeat       2048  0
rt73usb                22272  0
crc_itu_t               1792  1 rt73usb
rt2x00usb               7680  1 rt73usb
rt2x00lib              19712  2 rt73usb,rt2x00usb
rfkill                  4756  1 rt2x00lib
led_class               3332  2 leds_alix,rt2x00lib
input_polldev           3208  1 rt2x00lib
mac80211              114448  2 rt2x00usb,rt2x00lib
cfg80211               19976  2 rt2x00lib,mac80211
usbcore                98364  5 rt73usb,rt2x00usb,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd

/etc/network/interfaces entry:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
pre-up iwconfig wlan0 essid earth mode Managed key s:textkey123456