This weekend I downloaded and burned a copy of Ubuntu and Kubuntu... both for the AMD64 and for the i386 kernels. (Four CDs... what the hell, I wasn't using 'em for anything else.)
The AMD64 install was quickly abandoned when I tried to figure out how to get ndiswrapper working on them... and they didn't. I am now taking pwhysall's advice to heart and concentrating purely on the realm of 32 bit software.
So... Ubuntu. It installs pretty easily, but I can't seem to get ndiswrapper to work. It's not part of the standard install, but I can apt-get install it (ndiswrapper-utils). The problem is that it doesn't work with the driver that came on the hp pavillion cd. By contrast, Mepis automatically recognized and configured it, and Xandros was able to use the driver from the CD correctly.
It's a broadcom driver. According various searches in the ubuntu forums, broadcom is a pain in the ass to try to get working. Yippee.
Essentially, this is what happens:
I type "sudo ndiswrapper -i [driver name]" (can't remember what that is right now.
It installs the driver.
I type "ndiswrapper -l" and it correctly shows the driver.
I type "sudo modprobe ndiswrapper" and it does something -- it doesn't tell me what, but it doesn't send me an error message either.
At this point, the wireless indicator lights up on my laptop, and I can see it as "wlan0" in the network thingy.
I reboot, it goes away.
So I figure I'd try Kubuntu, since I'm a lot more familiar with KDE and I reckon I might be missing a command somewhere.
Install Kubuntu. Install ndiswrapper. Install driver (using above commands) with the same results.
Go to networking in KControl, go to wireless network, log in as admin, autoconfig wlan0.
Go to regular networking, disable eth0, enable wlan0... and it enables for have a second and then automatically disables itself again.
Hm.
Try again. Same result. It will show "enabled" for a second, and then go away. Thing is, on the task bar there is a little wireless applet that claims that it's working at 100%. Shrug.
Reboot, during bootup it polls for network connections (ethernet cable is disconnected at this point) and finds... nothing.
I log in... check network settings. It sees nothing. So I check ndiswrapper -l -- the driver is still there, no errors are reported. I type "sudo modprobe ndiswrapper" and poof, wlan0 shows up on my network panel again... but when I try to access it as admin, the whole thing crashes.
Yay.
It could be that I'm using the wrong driver. The problem is, every other broadcom driver I've downloaded and used -- including the updated one from HP's site -- has either failed completely (i.e., displaying "invalid driver" with ndiswrapper -l) or apparently loaded correctly and then done exactly what I've described above.
In all other respects Ubuntu and Kubuntu have been damned painless -- identifying my screen without me having to tweak x config files (which I have had to do to get xandros working, and which I've tried to do unsuccessfully with mepis -- never got it to display 1280x800), displaying at 96 dpi, enabling all the nice font smoothing technologies by default... but I can't get ndiswrapper to play nice. Or I can't find a broadcom driver that will work with my pavillion z5000 and Ubuntu/Kubuntu at the same time.
(I feel silly differentiating between them, since even Kubuntu calls itsels "ubuntu" when it's booting. The only difference I can see seems to be gnome and KDE. Since Kubuntu id's itself as part of the Ubuntu project, I guess that's the point. Still, on the off-chance that there's something *else* that makes them different, I thought I'd risk being over-specific.)