Changing bcm43xx to ndiswrapper.

[wilku]

Hello

I'm trying to change my wireless solution from bcm43xx to ndiswrapper.

I have installed ndiswrapper (using apt-get). I have downloaded and installed windows drivers to my card [02:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)].
ndiswrapper -l shows:

installed drivers:
bcmwl5a         driver installed, hardware (14E4:4324) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)

ndiswrapper is present in /etc/modprobe.d

And yet lsmod shows only bcm43xx. How to get rid of it and use ndiswrapper instead?

I use Debian Etch, kernel 2.6.18-4-486

Thank you for any help.

EDIT: I forgot to say, why I'm trying to do this. bcm43xx is buggy I think or not so efficient. After some time I don't use the computer, wireless connection becomes stale. Sometimes ifdown makes my computer hang (heavy processor usage). Even if ifdown succeeds, ifup is not able to use dhcp. And on some spots in the house I loose the connection - I heard ndiswrapper is better.

[RobinVossen]

I had the same problem.
The apt version is wrong..
Yea, bad luck modprobe isnt in there
to fix you can either install from source or do something I forgot.
Something with m-i i-a or something
I can look in my History File for you.
But well i aint home right now.

[wilku]

Thanks for the response.

I managed to do it by:
- adding bcm43xx to a file inside /etc/hotplug/blacklist.d/ - this stopped bcm43xx from loading
- using modconf to turn ndiswrapper module on (it's in misc category)

And now it works!