I am going to try to install ndiswrapper to get my Linksys wireless G network adapter working on a new Ubuntu install.

That said, it appears I may be entering a losing battle from what I have gathered so I need all the help I can get.

Have installed Ubuntu on Windows XP and it boots up and all but I am wondering how to get to the command line to do things like extracting the tar file.

How do I access the command line on a linux boot? I can do it on an internet server using SSH but not sure how to do it in this situation.

Am I going to destroy everything, Windows and all, by messing with this stuff?

Thanks for your help.

Not really sure what you mean when you say you've installed Ubuntu "on" Windows (perhaps in some kind of virtual environment?), but you just need to find an entry called "Terminal" in the GNOME menu somewhere (I'm not exactly sure where, but it can't be too hard to find). Failing that, you should be able to access a console by pressing one of Ctrl+Alt+Fn (n = 1, 2, ..., 6 usually).