Problems w/ wireless

[Ryan Donahue]

I have been trying to get my Dell Inspiron 2650 online over wireless w/
ubuntu for a while but haven't had any luck.  I have an orinoco gold
pcmcia card that I tried but ubuntu won't pick it up.  When I run
"cardinfo" I am told that the card is an unsupported card.  I booted
into knoppix and even that didn't pick the card up.

A friend of mine has the netgear ma401 card that has worked on most
distros that he has used so he let me borrow that.  With the netgear I
actually get the link light to come on on the card but card still
doesn't get detected.  iwconfig or cardinfo neither come up w/
anything.  If I boot into knoppix, the netgear works just fine and
connects right away.    If I run cardinfo in knoppix, cardinfo picks up
the card just fine.  Anyone have any ideas what might be going on?