It absolutely should work. That it doesn't sounds like buggy software. But
where? In the kernel? In the router? Elsewhere?
My previously laptop had a WiFi card that used ath9k instead of your which
uses ath5k. My friend had a WiFi router that I'd try to use and there was a
bug in his router's firmware in which I could only use it if my laptop was
the only device connected via WiFi. If anything else was connected then DHCP
didn't work for me. My choice was to replace the WiFi card or wait for a bug
fix for his router. I ended up getting a ThinkPad X60s anyway 'cause I wanted
support for coreboot and it works just fine. Sometimes bugs are that
specific.
It can be hard to debug, which is why I was hoping you'd try a newer kernel
(3.11 is now available in my repository) to test. Also, does it work with
other WiFi base stations? That's another important clue.
