[CentOS] Atheros AR5212/AR5213 wifi not working

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the CentOS list, so forgive me if this has been answered before (someone please point me to an efficient way of searching through the list archives).

I have a wifi card from the subject line, and have the driver installed. Using NetworkManager under Gnome everything works perfectly. However, I prefer to use network service instead of NetworkManager since
a) I use KDE and NetworkManager fails to work properly there
b) this is a desktop machine, online 24/7 and I want wireless active even when I am not logged in.

But when I use the network service, wifi0 fails after a delay, and /var/log/messages says there are no dhcp offers available. However, I am sure that there are several wireless networks available, with a strong signal.

How to solve this? I would even accept using NM if it works as a daemon, ie even if I'm not logged in, and under KDE (which it doesn't atm).

I believe the problem is essentially in the (in)ability to choose the appropriate network automatically --- in KDE NM doesn't have the taskbar applet which would let me choose the network, and the network service has no way of automatically making such a choice either...

Please help! Btw, this is somewhat urgent, I am supposed to make it work by monday, Oct. 13.

Oh, I almost forgot, CentOS 5.2, fully updated.

Best, :-)
Marko