wireless lan setup in SuSE 9.1

Suse 9.1 recognizes the wireless cards: Orinoco and Belkin
and loads the drivers automatically. But the following have to be done in order to successfully configure them:

1. LOG IN AS ROOT
2. set essid
3. set key
4. set default gateway if u know its IP address
5. set it as pcmcia
6. set default route: destination=default, mask=0.0.0.0, gateway=192.168.2.1, interface=eth1
7. set it to be configured at boot time.

after spending 3 and 1/2 hours on this stupid thing, lesson learnt:

LOG IN AS ROOT AND DO EVERYTHING!!!

dunno why it cannot configure these cards properly when we su from another user's login.