Problems connecting to iPhone hotspot

So... running openSUSE 12.3 x64 on a Lenovo ThinkPad T530, dual boot with Win 7 Pro.

At home, I can connect via ethernet or WiFi to my LAN with no problems. If I go out and about to some place that has a wifi hotspot, again, no problems seeing or connecting to the access point - in Win 7 or Linux (any flavor).

The problems start when I'm trying to connect via the wifi hotspot on my iPhone 4 in openSUSE. No problems in Win7, or previously in Ubuntu (sorry), but in 12.3 / KDE most of the time I can't even 'see' the hotspot and have to set it up as a 'hidden' network. Sometimes that works... and sometimes it'll show 'connected' and say it has an IP address, but there is no functional connectivity.

I don't think the problem is the iPhone, really. I can connect to it as a hotspot just fine in Win7, other linux distros, and even with my Kindle. If I connect the phone to the laptop using a USB cable, it then sees it as a wired connection and works okay. Can't seem to connect to it via Bluetooth either, but thats a separate issue ;)

Any ideas as to why this is being such a PITA? Anyone else having more luck?

TIA,

Monte