diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 2fd18b5b61..59070b9f9a 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+2005-01-24  Dan Williams  <dcbw@redhat.com>
+
+	* src/NetworkManagerDevice.c
+	  src/NetworkManagerDevicePrivate.h
+		- Block nm_device_new() until our device's worker thread has had a
+			chance to start up.  Fixes a race between main thread and worker
+			thread starting that caused activation requests to get lost.
+
 2005-01-24  Dan Williams  <dcbw@redhat.com>
 
 	* initscript/RedHat/NetworkManager
diff --git a/src/NetworkManagerDevice.c b/src/NetworkManagerDevice.c
index a26f9b88eb..c642cbfb56 100644
--- a/src/NetworkManagerDevice.c
+++ b/src/NetworkManagerDevice.c
@@ -319,6 +319,12 @@ NMDevice *nm_device_new (const char *iface, const char *udi, gboolean test_dev,
 		dev = NULL;
 	}
 
+	/* Block until our device thread has actually had a chance to start. */
+	syslog (LOG_ERR, "nm_device_new(): waiting for device's worker thread to start.\n");
+	while (dev->worker_started == FALSE)
+		g_usleep (G_USEC_PER_SEC / 2);
+	syslog (LOG_ERR, "nm_device_new(): device's worker thread started, continuing.\n");
+
 	return (dev);
 }
 
@@ -391,11 +397,17 @@ static gpointer nm_device_worker (gpointer user_data)
 {
 	NMDevice *dev = (NMDevice *)user_data;
 
-	g_return_val_if_fail (dev != NULL, NULL);
+	if (!dev)
+	{
+		syslog (LOG_CRIT, "nm_device_worker(): received NULL device object, NetworkManager cannot continue.\n");
+		exit (1);
+	}
 
 	dev->context = g_main_context_new ();
 	dev->loop = g_main_loop_new (dev->context, FALSE);
 
+	dev->worker_started = TRUE;
+
 	/* Do an initial wireless scan */
 	if (nm_device_is_wireless (dev))
 	{
diff --git a/src/NetworkManagerDevicePrivate.h b/src/NetworkManagerDevicePrivate.h
index c26d03cc2d..1abec22770 100644
--- a/src/NetworkManagerDevicePrivate.h
+++ b/src/NetworkManagerDevicePrivate.h
@@ -104,6 +104,7 @@ struct NMDevice
 	GMainContext			*context;
 	GMainLoop				*loop;
 	gboolean				 worker_done;
+	gboolean				 worker_started;
 	guint		 		 renew_timeout;
 	guint				 rebind_timeout;