Actually, David, I take that back. I suspect that Madwifi is still the best option for you. Try the following if you would:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential subversion



svn co http://svn.madwifi-project.org/madwifi/branches/madwifi-0.9.4/



cd madwifi-0.9.4/



 make



sudo make install 

And then test it with modprobe ath_pci
If the module works for you, then go ahead and update your initrd with the following command:
sudo update-initramfs -u

Let me know how that turns out for you....

OK, I did all that and it seemed to install things (albeit not on the first attempt, as I had to do some routine updates first). And it created the madwifi folder. But I still can't see how to actually access the internet wirelessly.
When I go to "edit wireless networks" there are no wireless networks on the list. At the bit where you type in the Properties, everything is greyed out except "Name" and "bssids", and I can't type in bssids. (It was exactly like this before.) I've tried some of the commands from earlier in this conversation and the outputs are nearly the same, although the output of "ifconfig -a" has a few nonzero numbers where before they were 0.

What do you think? Is it worth pursuing this line of enquiry, or do I need a new kernel?

can you include the outpu of both of these commands:
ifconfig -a
sudo iwlist scan

david@david-laptop:~$ ifconfig -a

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1d:60:ec:47:75  

          inet addr:192.168.1.72  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          inet6 addr: fe80::21d:60ff:feec:4775/64 Scope:Link

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:591 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:565 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:646666 (631.5 KB)  TX bytes:115766 (113.0 KB)

          Interrupt:20 Base address:0xdead 



lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:1866 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:1866 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:78372 (76.5 KB)  TX bytes:78372 (76.5 KB)



david@david-laptop:~$ sudo iwlist scan

[sudo] password for david: 

lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.



eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

David1729 wrote:

OK, I did all that and it seemed to install things (albeit not on the first attempt, as I had to do some routine updates first). And it created the madwifi folder.

Actually it seems to either not have installed the madwifi driver, or you may have other / more issues. Can you also provide the output of "lsmod | grep 802". I want to see if the driver is installed and active in your kernel.

I get no output whatsoever. But when I type just "lsmod" I get the output listed below.

You mention other issues. I do have other issues with Ubuntu, but I hadn't said anything about them because I thought you had enough to deal with. But if they might be connected to this, then I might as well tell you:
- I have no sound at all.
- The screen resolution is 800x600, and the only other option is 640x480 which is even worse. (So, for instance, I can't see all of this webpage without scrolling horizontally.)
- I have trouble installing things from source, it looks like part of the gcc package is missing or something.

david@david-laptop:~$ lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by

xt_limit                3584  8 

xt_tcpudp               4096  7 

ipt_LOG                 7296  8 

ipt_MASQUERADE          4608  0 

ipt_TOS                 3200  0 

ipt_REJECT              5632  1 

nf_conntrack_irc        7576  0 

nf_conntrack_ftp       10144  0 

xt_state                3328  6 

rfcomm                 41872  2 

l2cap                  25728  13 rfcomm

bluetooth              61028  4 rfcomm,l2cap

ppdev                  10372  0 

acpi_cpufreq           10796  1 

cpufreq_stats           7104  0 

cpufreq_ondemand        9740  1 

freq_table              5536  3 acpi_cpufreq,cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand

cpufreq_userspace       5284  0 

cpufreq_powersave       2688  0 

cpufreq_conservative     8712  0 

container               5632  0 

dock                   11280  0 

sbs                    15112  0 

sbshc                   7680  1 sbs

ipv6                  268036  10 

af_packet              23812  2 

ppp_generic            29588  0 

slhc                    7040  1 ppp_generic

parport_pc             36260  0 

lp                     12324  0 

parport                37832  3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp

joydev                 13120  0 

evdev                  13056  7 

psmouse                40336  0 

pcspkr                  4224  0 

serio_raw               7940  0 

snd_hda_intel         346264  3 

snd_pcm_oss            42144  0 

snd_mixer_oss          17920  1 snd_pcm_oss

ath_pci               101152  0 

wlan                  207216  1 ath_pci

ath_hal               194256  1 ath_pci

snd_pcm                78724  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss

snd_page_alloc         11400  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

snd_hwdep              10500  1 snd_hda_intel

video                  19856  0 

output                  4736  1 video

snd_seq_dummy           4868  0 

ac                      6916  0 

battery                14212  0 

snd_seq_oss            35584  0 

snd_seq_midi            9376  0 

snd_rawmidi            25760  1 snd_seq_midi

snd_seq_midi_event      8320  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi

asus_laptop            19064  0 

snd_seq                54224  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event

led_class               6020  1 asus_laptop

snd_timer              24836  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq

snd_seq_device          9612  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq

button                  9232  0 

snd                    56996  17 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_hwdep,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device

soundcore               8800  1 snd

sis190                 22020  0 

mii                     6400  1 sis190

shpchp                 34452  0 

pci_hotplug            30880  1 shpchp

iptable_nat             8324  0 

nf_nat                 20396  2 ipt_MASQUERADE,iptable_nat

nf_conntrack_ipv4      19208  8 iptable_nat

nf_conntrack           66752  7 ipt_MASQUERADE,nf_conntrack_irc,nf_conntrack_ftp,xt_state,iptable_nat,nf_nat,nf_conntrack_ipv4

iptable_mangle          3712  0 

iptable_filter          3840  1 

ip_tables              14820  3 iptable_nat,iptable_mangle,iptable_filter

x_tables               16132  9 xt_limit,xt_tcpudp,ipt_LOG,ipt_MASQUERADE,ipt_TOS,ipt_REJECT,xt_state,iptable_nat,ip_tables

ext3                  136968  1 

jbd                    48404  1 ext3

mbcache                 9600  1 ext3

loop                   18948  2 

sd_mod                 30720  2 

sg                     36880  0 

sr_mod                 17956  0 

cdrom                  37408  1 sr_mod

ata_generic             8324  0 

pata_acpi               8320  0 

sata_sis                9732  1 

ehci_hcd               37900  0 

pata_sis               15236  1 sata_sis

libata                159728  4 ata_generic,pata_acpi,sata_sis,pata_sis

scsi_mod              151692  4 sd_mod,sg,sr_mod,libata

ohci_hcd               26640  0 

usbcore               146412  3 ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd

thermal                16796  0 

processor              36616  4 acpi_cpufreq,thermal

fan                     5636  0 

fbcon                  42912  0 

tileblit                3584  1 fbcon

font                    9472  1 fbcon

bitblit                 6784  1 fbcon

softcursor              3072  1 bitblit

fuse                   50708  5