I have the same symptom at boot time.  However once the system is booted, I can rmmod ipw2200 and then insert it again, and the adaptor then works.  

The ipw2200 adaptor worked right from boot time with dapper, edgy and feisty.  The adaptor always fails at boot and has to be removed/inserted since I dist-upgraded to hardy last week.

Dmesg excerpt from boot time showing firmware load failure:

[    0.000000] Linux version 2.6.24-12-generic (buildd@palmer) (gcc version 4.2.3 (Ubuntu 4.2.3-2ubuntu4)) #1 SMP Wed Mar 12 23:01:54 UTC 2008 (Ubuntu 2.6.24-12.22-generic)
...snips...
[   17.918662] ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
[   17.924905] ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, git-1.1.13
[   17.924971] ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation <email address hidden>
[   17.931693] ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.2.2kmprq
[   17.931774] ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
...snips...
[   18.501492] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:03.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[   18.502188] ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection
[   18.503108] ipw2200: ipw2200-bss.fw request_firmware failed: Reason -2
[   18.503171] ipw2200: Unable to load firmware: -2
[   18.503229] ipw2200: failed to register network device
[   18.503328] ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:03:03.0 disabled
[   18.503396] ipw2200: probe of 0000:03:03.0 failed with error -5
...snips...
[   19.229148] PM: Resume from disk failed.
[   19.248154] ReiserFS: dm-4: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
...etc...

Device 03:03.0 is the wireless adaptor:
03:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection (rev 05)

Dmesg excerpt from immediately after boot, showing results of rmmod/insmod:

[  125.636667] ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.2.2kmprq
[  125.636675] ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
[  125.638717] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:03.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[  125.640986] ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection
[  125.829906] ipw2200: Detected geography ZZE (13 802.11bg channels, 19 802.11a channels)
[  126.439979] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[  126.654021] ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'TKIP'
[  127.153299] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[  129.404845] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[  139.849429] eth0: no IPv6 routers present

The firmware file exists:
# ls -l /lib/firmware/2.6.24-12-generic/ipw2200-bss.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 191142 2008-03-11 13:02 /lib/firmware/2.6.24-12-generic/ipw2200-bss.fw

The following excerpt from an old dmesg log shows ipw2200 working, even with the gutsy kernel that I briefly installed before deciding to jump right to hardy.

[    0.000000] Linux version 2.6.20-15-generic (root@palmer) (gcc version 4.1.2 (Ubuntu 4.1.2-0ubuntu4)) #2 SMP Sun Apr 15 07:36:31 UTC 2007 (Ubuntu 2.6.20-15.27-generic)
...snips...
[    4.552000] PM: Resume from disk failed.
[    4.580000] ReiserFS: dm-4: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
...snips...
[   19.304000] ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
[   19.352000] ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, git-1.1.13
[   19.352000] ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation <email address hidden>
[   19.368000] Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:03:01.0 [1028:0188]
[   19.448000] sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver
[   19.448000] sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman
[   19.472000] ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.2.0kmprq
[   19.472000] ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2006 Intel Corporation
...snips...
[   19.600000] ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection
...snips...
[   20.428000] ipw2200: Detected geography ZZE (13 802.11bg channels, 19 802.11a channels)
[   20.700000] ipw2200: Firmware error detected.  Restarting.

Here I have always had a "firmware error: restarting" message, but the driver always recovered OK and I used to have wireless networking as from this point.

As I say this all worked until I upgraded to Hardy.  I am currently wondering if the change in the order of boot between feisty and hardy may be what's causing the firmware load to fail.

Prior to hardy, the ipw2200 driver wasn't loaded until after the decision to resume or clean boot had been taken and after / had been properly mounted.