I hadn't tried the BT Home Hub 2 with a wired connection to the laptop. On trying it, it wouldn't work!
So I changed to my Zoom ADSL router, which did work, and did an update. (The fc14 install DVD which I used on the laptop is as old as fc14.) Anyway, at least the laptop can use the BT hub as a wired connection now, but as my daughters friend is in a shared house, she needs a wireless connection.
Next, I had been following
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...t-woes-667069/
however ps -ef | grep wpa shows that wpa_supplicant is already started at boot. If you try kill -9 on the process, it immediately restarts, and this software blocks any manual attempt to get wpa_supplicant connected to the BT Hub.
I found that I needed to edit a /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant file and put
INTERFACES="-iwlan0"
DRIVERS="-Dwext"
Also, I see that I get a boot message that starting wpa_supplicant failed.
At the bottom of the boot message I get
/sbin/shclient, no such file or directory.
I also noted that the wpa_supplicant that starts at boot wants /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf and not /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf which I had put there --- yes that really was daft!
So although I must be a bit nearer to get this wireless connection going, it still won't work.
On fc14 I have system->preferences->network connections
Early on I added a wireless device
Put the SSID (BTHumeHub2-XXXX where XXXX is on a label on the back of the BT hub)
I chose Mode=Infrastructure (other option is Ad-hoc and I don't know what either of them mean)
It also wants a MAC address - on the wired connection this is the MAC address of eth0 returned by ifconfig -a. I have tried leaving it blank, and I have tried using the mac address of wlan0 returned by ifconfig -a. I left MTU as "Automatic".
Also, there is a BSSID and a Cloned MAC address. I have left these blank.
Under the security tab I choose WPA & WPA2 personal. It also wants you to set a password. I have no idea what this password is about, but I put
in something and password=same_thing in the wpa_supplicant.conf file. (I assume it is definitely not the wpa key.)
Finally I have been using this as the wpa_supplicant.conf file
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=0
network={
ssid="BTHomeHub2-j4Z9" #do I need to drop the quotes
scan_ssid=0
proto=WPA RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CCMP TK
psk=ffxxxxxxe7 #no quotes?, it's the wpa key on the label on the back of the hub.
password="WhatIPutIn" #what I put in system->preferences->newtwork devices under security tab with quotes
}
Note, there are no # comments in the actual file
Last of all, at one point, the wireless connection did see the home hub but couldn't connect to the internet. When I re-booted
on saturday, it couldn't see the BT hub again. At any rate, the machines Atheros wireless adapter and the ath5k driver must be working.
Anyway, I still have no wireless connection for the laptop.
2 
ff/any 
