Just posting to say thank you for putting together this documentation...I never would've figured it out on my own!

Hardware: HP Mini 1120NR
Software: Open1to1.org September 2012 image (based on Ubuntu 12)

Contents of my wpa_supplicant.conf:

-------
ap_scan=1
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

network={
ssid="School Wifi"
scan_ssid=0
proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk=longstringoflettersandnumbersgeneratedbywpa_pa ssphrasetool
pairwise=TKIP
group=TKIP
}
-------

Contents of my /etc/rc.local:

/sbin/ifconfig wlan0 down
/sbin/dhclient -r wlan0
/sbin/wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B
/bin/sleep 5
/sbin/ifconfig wlan0 up
/sbin/dhclient wlan0

This gets the wireless connection up and running before the student logs in, and I did apt-get remove network-manager so that they canNOT reveal the PSK that we use to connect them to the trusted network. Whether they can discern it from that hash is another matter, but at least now they have to work for it!

Thanks again.

-- MB