[Techtalk] ndiswrapper, 2wire, #! linux

[Amanda Babcock Furrow]

I have got to get back off of Windows, it is teh evil.  

So I have a #! (Crunchbang) Linux CD, which I plan to run as a Live CD
for now (chosen because it supports MTP, and that is a troubleshooting 
problem for a different day...).  And I have a 2wire wireless card, 
which I can't even get the indicator lights thereof to turn on in Linux.

I used to be a networking engineer, but not in wireless, and not on 
laptops.  I am lacking a clear picture of the layers involved - my mental 
image goes: hardware? - driver - ? - IP and up (I'm good from IP on).  
Hardware is not USB, is it?  What is the first layer I should check?
Anybody got a stack of diagnostic commands laying around?  What glues
the hardware to ndiswrapper, and ndiswrapper to the interface?  How
can I tell if I have the right .inf file loaded in ndiswrapper?  (I've
been unable to find the one Windows is using, and some I've downloaded
didn't seem to help.)

Thanks,
Amanda