Hardware: Buffalo WLI-CB-G54A
Chipset: Broadcom 4306

Background: I am some-what of a newbie with the Linux OS, I just recently loaded Fedora on my IBM T22 Thinkpad laptop.

Problem: I searched for some sort of linux driver that has been written for this card. My first and only success was with NDISwrapper. This utility uses the windows .inf file, writes a linux driver, and hopefully allows me to use this card . I followed the INSTALL readme provided by the developers of NDISwrapper and have come to a hard hault. Here is a look at the steps I have taken:

First, I enabled the driver I already compiled:
>modprobe ndiswrapper
>ndiswrapper -l
>Installed ndis drivers:
>bcmwl5 present

Second, I turn the card on using ifconfig:
>ifconfig wlan0 up

Thirdly, I checked the logs to ensure everything loaded correctly:
>/var/log/messages
>Mar 31 17:37:28 localhost kernel: ndiswrapper version 0.6 loaded
>Mar 31 17:37:28 localhost kernel: ndiswrapper adding bcmwl5.sys
>Mar 31 17:37:28 localhost kernel: wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device >00:07:40:79:55:b9 using driver bcmwl5.sys
>dmesg
>ndiswrapper version 0.6 loaded
>ndiswrapper adding bcmwl5.sys
>PCI: Setting latency timer of device 05:00.0 to 64
>divert: allocating divert_blk for wlan0
>wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:07:40:79:55:b9 using driver >bcmwl5.sys

Now I run a scan using iwlist:
>iwlist wlan0 scan
>wlan0 Scan completed :
> Cell 01 - Address: 00:06:25:C3:AE:1D
> ESSID:"Linksys"
> Protocol:IEEE 802.11b
> Mode:Managed
> Frequency:2.437GHz
> Quality:0/100 Signal level:-52 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
> Encryption keyff
> Bit Rate:1Mb/s
> Bit Rate:2Mb/s
> Bit Rate:5.5Mb/s
> Bit Rate:11Mb/s

Here are the print outs from both an ifconfig and an iwconfig:
>ifconfig
>wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:07:40:79:55:B9
> UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
> RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
> TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
> collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
> RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
> Interrupt:11 Memory:20c00000-20c01fff
>iwconfig
>wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""
> Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462GHz Access Point: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
> Bit Rate:54Mb/s Tx-Power:16 dBm
> RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
> Encryption keyff
> Power Managementff
> Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-10 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm
> Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
> Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:25 Missed beacon:0

I have tried to manually set the IP:
>ifconfig wlan0 192.168.1.108 mtu 576
I have tried to manually set the gw:
>route add default gw 192.168.1.1
I have tried to manually set the ESSID:
>iwconfig wlan0 essid "Linksys"

Now, I have tried restarting the network script:
>./network stop
> ./network start

I believe I have done everything in between correctly, I checked the drivers and judging from the logs it looks like there working with the card. I am desperate to have a working PCMCIA wireless card working under linux.
If anyone has any ideas, clues, advice, I would greatly apprecite it. Thank you in advance!

If you basic problem is getting wireless to work. I would recommend the following alternate procedures.

edit your file /etc/modules.conf
add the following line :

alias eth0 ornico_pci

Now I understand that you do not have Ocrnico wireless card, however this driver which comes inbuilt(in mandrake 9.2 atleast) is known to work with most of the wireless cards. It worked on my HP Pavillion ze5385 running Mandrake 9.2. Give it a shot and let me know if it worked.

I see that the frequency of your NIC is set to a different value than the AP.
Do

iwlist wlan0 channel

That will give you a list of the channels for your card and what frequency they represent.
On my card that AP's frequency 2.437GHz would be channel 6.
So a

iwconfig wlan0 channel 6

would help in my case.
You can alternatively also set the frequency with a value, I find channels easier to deal with though.

check with iwconfig wlan0 that it's been changed
Then do

iwconfig wlan0 essid "Linksys"

Again check with iwconfig it's been set.
Now you should be able to do all the ifconfig bits.
I'm also not sure if you need the MTU setting, try it without.

Hope this helps
bareego

Can be this channel lookup automatic? It's a pain in the %ss when the AP changes the channel, and you keep looking at it.

The NDIS wrapper should work completely, if you make sure you have the right versions.

Some one with a success story for the Broadcom 4306 is here:

http://www.geocities.com/nsupathy/Re...ruemobile_1400

The version you need are:
Windows drivers: R81435
NDISWrapper: 0.9

It should then work.

I found that page as the 2nd entry on Google after this thread. I searched for 'Broadcom 4306'