> I was trying to change the channel while in IBSS mode, by loading a
> new value into:
> 
>       (struct an_ltv_genconfig *) cfg->an_ds_channel = newchannel;

I guess it will only affect if the card start IBSS itself;
i.e. only when there are no IBSS speaker to join.

> The Cisco user literature didn't mention that the card would scan the
> channels all by itself.  I was planning on writing a little shell
> script wrapped around ancontrol to scan.  I guess I can save myself
> the trouble.

To specify which IBSS to join, SSID should be used as per spec.

> Is there a wildcard SID (eg. "", "ANY" or "any") that will instruct
> the card's firmware to take what it can get?
> 
> I tried "" but the driver balked that it couldn't initialize the MAC.

Null string ("") is treated as a wildcard SSID by the firmware.
The wildcard SSID is obviously prohibited to start IBSS, and the aironet
firmware apparently prohibit a wildcard SSID for IBSS mode.

Atsushi Onoe