I have 10.04LTS, installed, updated, and an ATHEROS wireless chip.

The box is a new Dell Intel Pentium...

cb-dell8@cb-dell8-laptop:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 0154 (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 0156 (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Device 1e31 (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Device 1e3a (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Device 1e2d (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Device 1e20 (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 1e10 (rev c4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 1e12 (rev c4)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation Device 1e26 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Device 1e59 (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Device 1e03 (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Device 1e22 (rev 04)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 05)
02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. Device 0036 (rev 01)
cb-dell8@cb-dell8-laptop:~$

cb-dell8@cb-dell8-laptop:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth1 no wireless extensions.

pan0 no wireless extensions.

cb-dell8@cb-dell8-laptop:~$

2.6.32-50-generic

Help???

Following link can help you.
http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials...th-these-tools

what do you get from these commands:
ifconfig
ifconfig -a

hi

ensure you have wireless (wlan) set up in your bios first

2) I suspect you may need firmware

for just your wireless can you show the snippet for
also show current modules in a code box pls
you are looking for a module like ath* as per
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/Atheros

but I don't have your hardware

3) can't you get a more recent kernel?

4) in debian the way to get firmare is something like

https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware

good luck