Broadcom 54G System lock up with Ndiswrapper
 

I've got a Broadcom 54G wireless card in my notebook, and I'm trying to get it setup to work with Mandrake 9.2. I'm using the Ndiswrapper, and got the driver loaded successfully, but when I enable the wireless the sytem locks up. Or, if I start the system with the wireless enabled the system locks up when I load the driver. Anybody have any suggestions or ideas? Thanks.

hey, steven_mc.

i'm working on the same problem and am really close to a solution. i've been following the directions from here:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/125571

i've found them very helpful.

i'm also running mandrake 9.2, but my system doesn't lock up, so i'm not sure i can offer too much assistance on my own.

good luck.

j

Is your card integrated? My wireless card is an internal PCI wireless card, but the notebook has an Enable/Disable button on the front of the notebook. I can load the drivers using the ndiswrapper, but when I enable the wireless the system locks up... Similarly if bootup with the wireless enabled, when I load the drivers the system locks up.

I've followed the ndiswrapper install instructions, but I've yet to find a windows driver that I can use with the wrapper that doesn't lock up the system, I assume this is my problem...

Guess I'm going to try the Linuxant wrapper, $20 is a small price to pay for working wireless in Linux... If that doesn't work I'll try picking up a PCMCIA 802.11b card that is supported...

If anyone has any suggestions I'm open to them.... Thanks.

My card is integrated and has the same button on the front. Are you running an H-P ze4560? I simply pulled the bcmwl5.sys and bcmwl5.inf files from the H-P website (Broadcom is less than helpful) and used them with the ndiswrapper.

Take heart; if you're running the same machine I am, you should be able to get it to work.

What driver are you using?

Actually I'm running an HP Zt3000, the widescreen notebook. Just got it less than a month ago. I tried the 2.40.43 version drivers available at the HP website, but they locked the system up instantaneously. With the older drivers I have tried it takes a little while before the system locks up. Not sure that this means anything, as the system still locked up.

from the hp website, it looks as though you might be running the same integrated wireless adapter i am (BCM94306 802.11g (rev 2)). if that's the case (maybe it's not, i'm just a newbie, so i could be completely off), then you should just be able to download the version 2.00a drivers from the hp site. i'm not sure where you got the 2.40.43 from (is that just the newer version?), but you might give the first one a try.

if you check the newbie forum, i just posted a step-by-step on how i got mine working. i don't know if it will be of any use to you (you might be well beyond my skill level), but just a thought...

i hope i've been at least a modest help to you.

HP ze4560 Broadcom 54 internal Wireless
 

I have been unsuccessful as well with this laptop and Linux. Only Linspire 5 got this internal card working at all. The latest versions of Mandrake, Suse, Lycoris, and Gentoo would not work. That NDISwrapper was no help in my case. I even have another wireless card (Microsoft MN-520) which is suppose to be one of the most Linux wireless friendly strangely enough that did not work for me either. Suse would recognize both cards but I could not get it to work.

Good luck.

Scott