Found the problem. For unknown reason, the wpa_supplicant executable was only several K long. Reinstalled the package, and things went smoothly.
(Sorry for the trouble. I lost two days on experimenting before sending the report, but only after that got the idea to inspect the executables.) Grigor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]