hidden essids and atheros.

[Robert Love <rml novell com>]

Team NM,

Hidden essids (essids of AP's that do not broadcast) and the Atheros
(madwifi) driver do not get along.

Always or almost always, the user fails to connect.

Investigation has led me long and it has led me far.  I have gone west
and east, up and down.

The problem is that Atheros takes considerable (and unpredictable) time
to determine the MAC address of the a non-broadcasting AP.

Thus in nm_device_wireless_is_associated(), the MAC address check fails
and NM gives up connecting in nm_dwwfl_test(), thinking that the link is
never associated.

The MAC test is flimsy at best.  The comment above it alludes that it
also has problems on Lucent WaveLan and I have even seen drivers that
never report the MAC address (old Atheros, I think, which always spit
out all-1s).

Other than just ditching this test, anyone have any ideas?

Is ditching the test viable?

	Robert Love