problems manually setting up wpa_supplicant

[Jack Howarth]

   I finally was able to configure my Linksys WMP54-G to connect
using ndiswrapper and the Windows wireless drivers for RT2500.
To do this I used the initscript changes described at...

http://www.cybcon.com/~coert/linux/siso/ap-scripts-madwifi.html

I ignored the madwifi specific parts and just used the changes on...

http://www.cybcon.com/~coert/linux/siso/ap-client-etc-sysconfig-wireless-wpasupplicantconf.html
http://www.cybcon.com/~coert/linux/siso/ap-client-dldir-fc3-network-scripts-wpa-patch.htmlhttp://www.cybcon.com/~coert/linux/siso/ap-client-etc-sysconfig-networkscripts-ifcfgwlan0.html

I also added...

alias wlan0 ndiswrapper

...to /etc/modprobe.conf. Unfortunately, I still am not autoloading
the ndiswrapper kernel module and/or starting wpa-supplicant before
the ifup-wireless script generates in iwconfig. If, after booting
I open a terminal and manually modprobe the ndiswrapper module and then
execute...

/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -Dndiswrapper -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -d

I can then use the Network Configuration to activate the wlan0 device with
no errors or warning. My current contents in /etc/sysconfig/networking-scripts
for ifcfg-wlan0 is...

WPA=yes
WPA_CONFIG=/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
WPA_DRIVER=ndiswrapper
TYPE=Wireless
DEVICE=wlan0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
IPV6INIT=no
ESSID="mywirlessnet"
KEY="mywirelesspasswd"
CHANNEL=11
MODE=Managed
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=yes

Thanks in advance for any advice on how to get both the ndiswrapper kernel
module to autoload and for the wpa_supplicant to start early enough in
the networking scripts to allow the connection to be made.
                        Jack