I used linuxant's driverloader to make this card worked and luckily I had a hard disk i could mount with the windows driver files. The only problem I have is that driverloader doesn't provide a way to monitor link quality thus far. The OSS driver probably has better-featured support.

Although the driver for this card/chipset is still in heavy development and has yet to reach a stable release it is at a stage where it is usable, you need to have a 2.4.23 or better kernel with firmware hotpluging configured in or as a module, kernel 2.6.x is also supported but I've yet to test it with my card.
I'm using the latest cvs snapshot from prism54.org dated 20041901 and firmware 1.0.0.0.

I agree. I tried the prism54 driver and with the help of the prism54 instructions and some comments posted on their forum I was able to get it working.

If you are buying a card now I suggest you buy the WG511T version instead (which has a better-supported chipset). That said WG511's are now reportedly very inexpensive ;)

Accourding to the box there is no linux support.

After hunting around the net for less than 10 mins i came accross prism54.org.

I used there drivers along with firmware.agant and had the card working very well within an hour.

i have used kismet well with this card and also used it with WEP 128bit with no problems.

the only draw back as the moment is the max speed of the connection using the card is 15mbs throughput

The prism driver does need M$ firmware files and no - you can't get those from the installation CD.You'll have to install it first on a M$ partition or grab them from prism's website but I wouldn't bet that they'll there much longer (seems to be semilegal).
Other than that it works fine - did have to use the KP (kernelpatch) file.The source file didn't work for me.

Just visited prism54.org to download the latest driver as well as the firmware.

Works well with Kismet etc.

I've been using the WG511card for a while now with the prism54 drivers. I just upgraded to the 2.4.26 kernel. I installed the latest drivers from prism54.org (prism54-cvs-latest and the 1.0.4.3 version of the firmware), and everything worked fine. The nice thing is that now, the card gets detected cold.

I've had no problems once I upgraded my Kernel to 2.6.7 which has the PrismGT drivers built in. The configuration takes about 5 minutes once you get the kernel up and working.

I have just patched my kernel with the patch provided by prism54.org, and download the firmware (link is also on prism54.org).

I have only tester Ad-Hoc mode.

Worked really well once I got all of the pieces in place. I had to search for different bits and pieces of this and thought I'd try to help anyone just wanted to get the card working quickly. I hope this helps!

1. Download "http://prism54.org/~mcgrof/firmware/1.0.4.3.arm" and rename 1.0.4.3.arm to isl3890

wget http://prism54.org/~mcgrof/firmware/1.0.4.3.arm
mv 1.0.4.3.arm isl3890

2. Create /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/ directory
su root
[password]
mkdir -p /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/

3. Move isl3890 to the new directory.
mv isl3890 /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/

4. Create file /etc/load_wireless with the following - credit to David Cafaro (http://www.cafaro.net/david/MM20ReviewAndInstall.html)

#!/bin/bash
# Note you may have to change all references to eth1 to eth0 if you do not have another network card already installed
# Dry start to load firmware
echo -n "Bringing up wireless card..."
/sbin/ifconfig eth1 up
# Wait a sec to make sure it's good and loaded
sleep 2
# Now really load it
/sbin/iwconfig eth1 essid [SSID SET IN ROUTER] mode Managed channel 6 key [WEP KEY SET IN ROUTER]
/sbin/ifconfig eth1 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0
/sbin/route add default gw 192.168.0.1
echo "done"

5. Make /etc/load_wireless executable:
chmod u+x /etc/load_wireless

6. Test your script:
/etc/load_wireless

7. Put a call to this script in your rc.local if you want to automatically load the wireless card at boot.

Works like a champ using Prism54 driver (and firmware !)
I am able to watch movie mounted on my server iTE RAID (ITE 8212) IDE disks via NFS and never a glitch. Of course, browse the net with DSL as well. This is my network set:

D_link DI-524 router (801.11g)
Laptop HP Ze4200 (AMD 2000+) , Fedora Core 3, WG511 802.11g, driver Prism54
Server, (AMD 2500+, Fedora Core 3, Gigabyte N-force 2 MB, ITE RAID 8212)

Easy install under Fedora Core 2 on a vintage-1999 Gateway laptop. I couldn't get it to work using DHCP, but with a static IP address it works perfectly. I use it almost exclusively on my home network, so the DHCP thing isn't a big deal to me. It's probably a simple fix, but I'm new to Linux and haven't dug into it yet.

Running on a 1GHz PowerBook. Thought I was having troubles with it until i downloaded the firmware from prism54.org.

Excelent Card. Awsome price.

compiled 2.6.9, put it in..rebooted. bam

i heard this works with 2.6.7+ so you don't have to use 2.6.9 ( it's still a little buggy )

great card..netgear is always good. finally a linux supported wireless....whee

There are 2 versions of this card.. 2.0 and 3.0

2.0 works with the linux drivers currently being used and it's made in Taiwan.

3.0 does not work no matter what with linux drivers.. probably using ndiswraper/linuxant you can get it working but in non native mode which means no kismet or airsnort :(

3.0 cards are made in China so trade it back for the 2.0 card if you're still able.

Works fine as per above instructions. I installed the 2.6.7 kernel from Slackware's testing/ , re-booted and with a little work with the prism firmware it's up and running. Kismet is happy with it, too.

Only complaint is that it occasionally has trouble leaving monitor mode, and requires a PCMCIA reset to settle down.

Other than that, I'm very happy with this piece of kit. Highly recommended.

Mandrake 10.1o found and configured this card perfectly. I didn't even have to install the firmware like I did in the other distro's I've used.

Jeremy

Initially had difficulity before I read the documentation more closely. It sure helps to have the firmware "renamed" is instructed. Once that was done, the card operates PERFECTLY!

Running the Prism54 driver.


Chris