ifup can't initialize wireless driver although NetworkManager can

[Andrew Gould]

I'm running openSuse 11.3 64-bit on an HP Pavillion p6510f.  It has an
onboard RaLink wireless N.  NetworkManager is able to configure and
use the wireless device.  Ifup is unable to initialize the driver.  I
would rather use ifup so that the network will up without user action.

Any advice?

I have included the relevant section of hwinfo below:

37: PCI 200.0: 0282 WLAN controller
  [Created at pci.318]
  Unique ID: y9sn.24hml8FOBj8
  Parent ID: CvwD.3XFj+Q3bL9C
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:05.0/0000:02:00.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:02:00.0
  Hardware Class: network
  Model: "RaLink RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe"
  Vendor: pci 0x1814 "RaLink"
  Device: pci 0x3090 "RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe"
  SubVendor: pci 0x11ad "Lite-On Communications Inc"
  SubDevice: pci 0x6632
  Driver: "rt2860"
  Driver Modules: "rt2860sta"
  Device File: wlan0
  Features: WLAN
  Memory Range: 0xfe9f0000-0xfe9fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  IRQ: 17 (76048 events)
  HW Address: 70:f1:a1:a7:0d:95
  Link detected: yes
  WLAN channels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
  WLAN frequencies: 2.412 2.417 2.422 2.427 2.432 2.437 2.442 2.447
2.452 2.457 2.462
  WLAN encryption modes: WEP40 WEP104 TKIP CCMP
  WLAN authentication modes: open sharedkey wpa-psk wpa-eap
  Module Alias: "pci:v00001814d00003090sv000011ADsd00006632bc02sc80i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: rt2860sta is active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe rt2860sta"
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #16 (PCI bridge)

Thanks,

Andrew