How to start a wireless connection at boot time?

[Tom Epperly <tepperly gmail com>]

I am familiar with the old Debian way of configuring interfaces with
ifup/ifdown and /etc/network/interfaces. I installed a MythBuntu box,
and I went through all the configuration stuff. It uses NetworkManager
to start up the wireless network card and I configured it for my local
access point.  The problem is that NetworkManager doesn't start up the
wireless connection when something goes wrong with the MythTV
configuration.

It seems that the NetworkManager configuration is associated with a
particular user account, and it only activates the wireless when the
MythTV startup works and the user is automatically logged in. Is there
a way to make NetworkManager start up the wireless connection
immediately (without waiting for a user login)?  I also want the
wireless network on and connected to the access point regardless of
whether any particular user is logged in. Is this doable?

Tom