I've searched a lot of forums, but still can't find the answer to my problem. I just installed Fedora 12, and yes I know it's an older OS. But VMware Player only supports Fedora 12, 16, and 17, and I can't get it to run under 16 or 17, so I guess I'm stuck with 12.

The Atheros driver loads fine, and it seems to be working, but NetworkManager has disabled the adapter. In System > Administration > Network, the adapter shows as 'wlan0', but is disabled and there is no check box in 'Profile.'

I placed a check box in 'Profile' and clicked Edit. I placed checks by 'Controlled by NetworkManager,' 'Activate device when computer starts,' and 'Allow all users to enable and disable the device.' I saved this config,then rebooted. Still the adapter remains disabled, but the check by 'Allow all users to enable and disable the device' is now unchecked again.

On the 'Wireless Settings' page, I set up the adapter like this:
Mode: Master
Network name (SSID): Specified: xxxxxxxx
Channel: Auto
Transmit rate: Auto
Key (use 0x for hex): 0xABCDE12345

Save and reboot, still disabled.

wlan0 does not show up when I run ifconfig, but iwconfig gives this info:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption keyff
Power Managementff

Running 'service network restart' gives this:
Shutting down interface eth0: [ OK ]
Shutting down interface wlan0: [ OK ]
Shutting down loopback interface: [ OK ]
Bringing up loopback interface: [ OK ]
Bringing up interface eth0:
Determining IP information for eth0.../etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-eth: line 298: 3715 Terminated /sbin/dhclient ${DHCLIENTARGS} ${DEVICE}
failed.
[FAILED]
Bringing up interface wlan0: RTNETLINK answers: File exists
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.

Determining IP information for wlan0... failed.

Running 'service NetworkManager restart' gives this:
Stopping NetworkManager daemon: [ OK ]
Setting network parameters... [ OK ]
Starting NetworkManager daemon: [ OK ]

Running 'lspci -vnn | grep -a4 -i net' gives this:
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 11
Memory at 94704000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3

01:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:360b]
Physical Slot: 0
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 28
I/O ports at 3000 [size=256]
--
Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 09-00-00-00-ff-ff-00-00
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169

02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter [168c:001c] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:137a]
Physical Slot: 1
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
Memory at 92600000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]

Running 'dmesg | grep ath' gives this:
ath5k 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
ath5k 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
ath5k 0000:02:00.0: registered as 'phy0'
ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x64
ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map
ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00
ath: Regpair used: 0x64
Registered led device: ath5k-phy0::rx
Registered led device: ath5k-phy0::tx
ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70)
device-mapper: multipath: version 1.1.0 loaded

It appears that the hardware is fine, the driver is being loaded, and the system recognizes the adapter. But I cannot get the system to enable the adapter. And yes, it worked fine on Fedora 16 and 17.

So what should I do? Try to get VMware Player working under 16 or 17, or try to get the wireless adapter working on 12? VMware Player had problems compiling the vmnet adapter on 16, and both vmnet and vmblock on 17.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

OK, I have fixed the problem. Under System > Administration > Network on the Hardware tab, I changed Mode from 'Master' to 'Managed' and I was able to get the interface to come up. I hope this might help someone else with the same issue!