Can confirm that this bug still persists using a clean install of Hardy 8.04 beta, after applying all updates available as of 2000 UTC 22/03/2008.

Hardware: Dell Inspiron 500m laptop using Broadcom 4306 wireless card:-

ben@foo:~$ lspci -nn | fgrep Broadcom
01:03.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 02)

On first boot, suitable firmware was not present, and I was not prompted by the restricted devices manager. Used "sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter" to get and extract firmware. Following this, the driver claims to be working:-

ben@foo:~$ dmesg | fgrep b43
[   90.815294] b43legacy-phy0 debug: Loading firmware version 0x127, patch level 14 (2005-04-18 02:36:27)
[   97.314665] Registered led device: b43legacy-phy0:tx
[   97.315141] Registered led device: b43legacy-phy0:rx
[  227.125221] b43legacy-phy0 debug: Chip initialized
[  227.126611] b43legacy-phy0 debug: 30-bit DMA initialized
[  227.127645] b43legacy-phy0 debug: Wireless interface started
[  227.133624] b43legacy-phy0 debug: Adding Interface type 2
[  968.018948] b43legacy-phy0 debug: Removing Interface type 2
[  968.021628] b43legacy-phy0 debug: Wireless interface stopped
[  968.021723] b43legacy-phy0 debug: DMA-32 0x0260 (RX) max used slots: 1/64
[  968.021810] b43legacy-phy0 debug: DMA-32 0x0200 (RX) max used slots: 1/64
[  968.021917] b43legacy-phy0 debug: DMA-32 0x02A0 (TX) max used slots: 0/128
[  968.031654] b43legacy-phy0 debug: DMA-32 0x0280 (TX) max used slots: 0/128
[  968.037434] b43legacy-phy0 debug: DMA-32 0x0260 (TX) max used slots: 0/128
[  968.039134] b43legacy-phy0 debug: DMA-32 0x0240 (TX) max used slots: 0/128
[  968.046624] b43legacy-phy0 debug: DMA-32 0x0220 (TX) max used slots: 2/128
[  968.050723] b43legacy-phy0 debug: DMA-32 0x0200 (TX) max used slots: 0/128
[  968.051957] b43legacy-phy0 debug: Radio initialized
[  968.052106] b43legacy-phy0 debug: Radio initialized
[  419.357337] b43legacy-phy0 debug: Loading firmware version 0x127, patch level 14 (2005-04-18 02:36:27)
[  419.360620] Registered led device: b43legacy-phy0:tx
[  419.361095] Registered led device: b43legacy-phy0:rx
[  419.367056] b43legacy-phy0 debug: Chip initialized
[  419.367844] b43legacy-phy0 debug: 30-bit DMA initialized
[  419.368346] b43legacy-phy0 debug: Wireless interface started
[  419.374583] b43legacy-phy0 debug: Adding Interface type 2

NetworkManager can then correctly probe networks, but cannot connect:

root@foo:~# NetworkManager --no-daemon
NetworkManager: <info>  starting...
NetworkManager: <info>  Found radio killswitch /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/dell_wlan_switch
NetworkManager: <info>  eth0: Device is fully-supported using driver 'e100'.
NetworkManager: <info>  nm_device_init(): waiting for device's worker thread to start
NetworkManager: <info>  nm_device_init(): device's worker thread started, continuing.
NetworkManager: <info>  Now managing wired Ethernet (802.3) device 'eth0'.
NetworkManager: <info>  Deactivating device eth0.
NetworkManager: <info>  wlan0: Device is fully-supported using driver '(null)'.
NetworkManager: <info>  wlan0: driver supports SSID scans (scan_capa 0x01).
NetworkManager: <info>  nm_device_init(): waiting for device's worker thread to start
NetworkManager: <info>  nm_device_init(): device's worker thread started, continuing.
NetworkManager: <info>  Now managing wireless (802.11) device 'wlan0'.
NetworkManager: <info>  Deactivating device wlan0.
NetworkManager: <info>  Updating allowed wireless network lists.
NetworkManager: <info>  Error getting killswitch power: org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.KillSwitch.NotSupported - Access type not supported
NetworkManager: <info>  Wireless now enabled by radio killswitch
NetworkManager: <WARN>  nm_dbus_get_networks_cb(): error received: org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerInfo.NoNetworks - There are no wireless networks stored..
NetworkManager: <debug> [1206217099.200709] nm_device_802_11_wireless_get_activation_ap(): Forcing AP 'MyAPName'
NetworkManager: <info>  User Switch: /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Devices/wlan0 / MyAPName
NetworkManager: <info>  Deactivating device wlan0.
NetworkManager: <info>  Device wlan0 activation scheduled...
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) started...
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0/wireless): access point 'MyAPName' is encrypted, but NO valid key exists.  New key needed.
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) New wireless user key requested for network 'MyAPName'.
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) New wireless user key for network 'MyAPName' received.
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
NetworkManager: <info>  Activation (wlan0/wireless): access point 'MyAPName' is encrypted, and a key exists.  No new key needed.
NetworkManager: <WARN>  nm_signal_handler(): Caught signal 11.  Generating backtrace...
NetworkManager: ******************* START **********************************
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: Using host libthread_db library "/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libthread_db.so.1".
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: [Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
NetworkManager: [New Thread 0xb7be0720 (LWP 7133)]
NetworkManager: [New Thread 0xb73deb90 (LWP 7140)]
NetworkManager: [New Thread 0xb7bdfb90 (LWP 7134)]
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: (no debugging symbols found)
NetworkManager: 0xb7fda410 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
NetworkManager: ******************* END **********************************

I'd be happy to debug this further, but I don't know where to start: is this a problem with NetworkManager, the b43legacy firmware, or the kernel module?

If it's relevant, bcm43xx never worked properly for me -- it was always exceptionally slow. Maybe the wl_apsta firmware isn't suitable for this card revision?