Alright, I was orginally running debian distro, and although wasn't that hard to use I didn't like it that much because of some reason, i didn't have any trouble setting up ndiswrapper on debian anyways.

I setup fedora core 5 I really enjoy the feel of it so I want to use it.

anyways

I added the livna repo, did yum install ndiswrapper and it installed. (i am very new to linux so these auto installers are a big help)

I followed the directions as best I could anyways I installed ndiswrapper installed my windows drivers bcmwl5.inf and modprobe ndiswrapper, ndiswrapper -m

still the light on my intergrated wireless won't turn on, and fedora doesn't seem to regonize it as wireless so i can't get any sort of connection through the wireless

I am using a HP Pavilion ze4908us model, sound, touch pad, keyboard, wired ethernet works but i can't get this damn wireless to work, and it worked fine in debian.

I tried this over at the fedora forum but didn't get any responses.

Any sort of idea's would be great, Not sure what information to provide so I guess i'll just shoot out the basic

[root@localhost ~]# /sbin/lspci -v |grep Wireless
02:06.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

[root@localhost ~]# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

Warning: Driver for device eth1 has been compiled with version 20
of Wireless Extension, while this program supports up to version 19.
Some things may be broken...

eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:"myessid" Nickname:"localhost.localdomain"
Mode:Managed Frequency=2.437 GHz Access Point: Invalid
Bit Rate=11 Mb/s
RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Encryption keyff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

sit0 no wireless extensions.

First your wireless device is known as eth1 and you need to use the network configuration tool, from the console or xterm session type; system-config-network

Or from the GUI try; Menu-->Administration-->Network

Second, your wireless tools are in need of being rebuilt (the warning message)

Third, the ndiswrapper modules may not be in use but the bcm43xx driver module is used instead (the 11-Mb/s rate is a possible clue for this) so please check;

cat /proc/modules | grep bcm43xx

Try one of the following as root from the console or xterm session;

dhclient eth1
dhcpcd eth1

[root@localhost ~]# cat /proc/modules |grep bcm43xx
bcm43xx 422081 0 - Live 0xdea5b000
ieee80211softmac 31553 1 bcm43xx, Live 0xdea1e000
ieee80211 31625 2 bcm43xx,ieee80211softmac, Live 0xde9 e7000
[root@localhost ~]# dhclient eth1

[root@localhost ~]#
[root@localhost ~]# dhcpcd eth1
bash: dhcpcd: command not found


-------------------------------

I am totally confused, but anyways in the network tools, I tried to activate it from there as well

Determining IP information for eth1... failed; no link present. Check cable?

It doesn't seem to regonize the wireless as the light on the laptop doesn't even light up like it did in debian, so the reason for the no link present i would assume is because of this.

Run /usr/sbin/iwlist eth1 scan. Does it return a list of access points?
What kind of encryption does your router use? Most routers have a web interface.

#iwlist eth1 scan
Warning: Driver for device eth1 has been compiled with version 20
of Wireless Extension, while this program supports up to version 19.
Some things may be broken...

eth1 Interface doesn't support scanning : No such device


My router has a web interface, there is no encryption on mine it's setup so that it only allows access to certain mac addresses and this one is already setup on it.

This is what is causing your wireless problem;

Since FC5 is loading the bcm43xx module for your wireless interface you need to download install and use the bcm43xx-fwcutter tool to copy the firmware to the proper location;

http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pu...003-2.fc5.html
http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhl-b.../msg01623.html

The ndiswapper rpm packages you install earlier are not needed.

so.. which file is the right driver file because this is what i get

[root@localhost ~]# bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware bcmwl5.inf
Cannot open input file bcmwl5.inf
[root@localhost ~]# bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware bcmwl5a.inf
Cannot open input file bcmwl5a.inf

Try a different driver as suggested by the ndiswrapper known working miki list;

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...index.php/List

One listed enrty for an HP Pavilion ze4900 points here;

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...tem=ob-26984-1


You might want to check this list also;

http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/?go=Devices

Thank you joethetester for pointing out the bcm43xx kernel module.

If you enter "bcm43xx-fwcutter -l" you will get a long list of drivers and versions that work. The fwcutter web site and the readme files for fwcutter contain links to drivers. You need to use the *.sys driver and not the *.inf file as the argument.

For your original problem, did you remember to "modprobe ndiswrapper". Also, inspect the "/etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-<device>" file. There could be problems with it.