atl1e and wpa_supplicant -Dwired not working

Hi,

to connect to the local wired (!) network, I need to authenticate with EAP. Unfortunately, I do not manage to get this network working with the atl1e network card in my new Asus EEEPC 901:

* I have two laptops plus a xircom PCMCIA card. The same configuration
  * works with the built-in intel e1000 card of one laptop
  * works with the xircom card in that same laptop
  * does not work on the EeePC
* I do not understand what NetworkManager asks me, so I stopped it and used
   wpa_supplicant as I have a config file working on one laptop
* I tried different kernels but without success
   (debian 2.6.26, ubuntu intrepid, self-compiles 2.6.27.5)

I do not have any other idea. Any suggestion is very welcome!

Thanks for your help,

Alexander