Comment 6 for bug 506180

After some research I located the causing commit in the kernel git repository:

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commit 512414b0bed0d376ac4d5ec1dd6f0b1a3551febc
Author: Luis R. Rodriguez <email address hidden>
Date: Wed Nov 25 17:23:26 2009 -0500

    ath5k: enable EEPROM checksum check

    Without this we have no gaurantee of the integrity of the
    EEPROM and are likely to encounter a lot of bogus bug reports
    due to actual issues on the EEPROM. With the EEPROM checksum
    check in place we can easily rule those issues out.

    If you run patch during a revert *you* have a card with a busted
    EEPROM and only older kernel will support that concoction. This
    patch is a trade off between not accepitng bogus EEPROMs and
    avoiding bogus bug reports allowing developers to focus instead
    on real concrete issues.

    If stable keeps bogus bug reports because of a possibly busted EEPROM
    feel free to apply this there too.

    Tested on an AR5414

    Cc: <email address hidden>
    Cc: <email address hidden>
    Cc: <email address hidden>
    Cc: <email address hidden>
    Cc: <email address hidden>
    Cc: <email address hidden>
    Signed-off-by: Luis R. Rodriguez <email address hidden>
    Signed-off-by: John W. Linville <email address hidden>
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Reverting this and recompiling the ath5k driver solved the issue.
I understand that my EEPROM is wrong, and that some serious warning is needed. But stop working at all, when it may work (most of the time) is overkilling, IMHO.