I started backtrack5 R1 virtual machine and it doesn't even see my wireless card (ralink rt5390)<1>. After a bit of research I discover the VM version of backtrack doesn't support wireless cards <2>. Does anyone in here know of a way to get a wireless card to work in backtrack 5?
I thought that perhaps they couldn't save the settings of the wireless card but when I was suspending the VM it says that it is saving the environment and data for the next session so I wouldn't think it was too big of a leap to save other settings as well.
<1>cant copy-n-paste the resuls of VM lspci but believeme it isn't there.
lspci of regular machine (relevant portion):
07:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT5390 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe

<2>http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forum...841#post208841

A VM is an emulation of a complete PC, including network hardware. So all the hardware inside the VM is purely virtual, hence the name virtual machine. You can't use your physical hardware in the VM, with the exception of USB devices that can be passed through to the VM.
If you want to use your physical hardware with an OS you have to install it to your physical hardware (or use a Live-CD).

the vm says I can use my webcam too. If it can use those two PHYSICAL devices why can't it use my wifi as well?

I would think that your webcam is internally attached to an USB port, but your wifi is attached to a PCI(e) port. As I stated above, it is possible to pass through USB devices. In the future this will be possible with PCI devices, too. At least I know that Virtualbox is experimenting with this feature.
But nowadays you have to run the system natively.