Hello,
I am struggling for over two weeks with the following problem :

I am running SuSE 9.1 Professional with the latest kernel (2.6.5-7.111-default), and desparately trying to use the SMC2835W card without success. I cannot even give any command to the card; it remains totally dead. (It works under Windows, so the hardware is OK).

I am running the prism54 driver version 1.1 in my SuSe 9.1
According to instructions, I downloaded the firmware 1.0.4.3 and installed it
in /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware with the name isl3890.

But, when I insert the card in its slot, then I get :
eth1: prism54 driver detected card model: PRISM Duette/GT
eth1: islpci_open()
eth1: resetting device...
eth1: uploading firmware...
eth1: firmware uploaded done, now triggering reset...
eth1: device soft reset timed out
eth1: timeout waiting for mgmt response 1000, trigging device
eth1: timeout waiting for mgmt response
eth1: timeout waiting for mgmt response 1000, trigging device
eth1: timeout waiting for mgmt response
eth1: timeout waiting for mgmt response 1000, trigging device
eth1: timeout waiting for mgmt response
eth1: timeout waiting for mgmt response 1000, trigging device
eth1: timeout waiting for mgmt response
eth1: mgmt tx queue is still full
eth1: mgt_commit has failed. Restart the device
eth1: mgmt tx queue is still full

Nothing happens, the led's on the card remain dark and I cannot get to it with any command at all. Apparently the "device soft reset timed out" is the problem, but what can I do about it ???

When I unplug the card, I get :
eth1: no IPv6 routers present
eth1: hot unplug detected
eth1: removing device
eth1: islpci_close ()

And after a while, I see :
unregister_netdevice: waiting for eth1 to become free. Usage count = 6
Assuming someone else called the IRQ
last message repeated 2 times
unregister_netdevice: waiting for eth1 to become free. Usage count = 6
unregister_netdevice: waiting for eth1 to become free. Usage count = 6
etc. etc.

Subsequently, inserting my "old' 802.11b card (which always works fine) also leads to nothing. The system doesn't even react anymore.
This has probably to do with the "waiting for eth1 to become free." message ??

So, I decide to reboot, but then I get a system hang after the message :
Shutting down sound driver.
Nothing happens any further, I have to cut power (which I don't like at all) !

Can anybody please help me with what might be going on here and how to resolve
this ?

Im not entirely sure if im right on this, but I have the same card and under the prism54 driver it is also dead. I suspect that some revisions of the card do not use a prism chipset (I seem to remember it being marked as broadcom on one site but I cant find the link to that anymore).

Try using the windows drivers and ndiswrapper, this is working for me. However when you plug the card in it will still load the prism54 driver. To fix this add the following line to /etc/modules.conf
install prism54 /sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper

Now when SuSE tries to modprobe prism54, the ndiswrapper module will load instead

Thanks for your reply.
Yes, that's what I did to get it working.

BTW : I found out that the card is using the "frisbee" chip, for which no Unix-driver exists (yet).