Pns-tool works in Fatdog

[chiefengineer]

I connect many devices running Fatdog--but recently I need to connect to an open hidden network. All the machines do it quickly and one not at all: an Acer laptop with an Atheros card that works great elsewhere. Wizards fail, commands with dhcpcd all end up "waiting for carrier" then timing out. I imported pns-tool from an old pup into /usr/sbin, and it works every time. I don't have to invoke "hidden network" or any special driver additions in the process. It appears to use the same ath9K. Just correctly; why?

I tried replacing the /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf with the one it generates in /etc/tmp, but I still have to run pns-tool to get it to connect. How might I sniff the underlying magic...I suspect it's in the next-to-last step where it says it's taking a moment to learn about my card?

[chiefengineer]

after replacing the /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf with the one it generates in /etc/tmp. I noticed it was running a process named:
"wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"

However ifconfig and iwconfig indicated nothing going on.

So I killed it, and re-ran it from the command prompt. This also managed to connect easily, and in a traceable active way very similar to watching pns-tool negotiate.

Seems there is no magic driver parameter, just something about the way a process gets invoked.

This is just posted in case anyone else ever encounters this (yet another of my weird problems).