I am running my wife's computer running Kubuntu 8.04, a completely new install, but without internet access. I have copied and unpacked madwifi package and am trying to install it following given instructions. I first set all madwifi devices down using ifconfig. They were ath0, eth0, lo, and wifi0. As requested, I then ran ./madwifi-unload.bash in scripts subdir. I got
Fatal: module wlan_scan_sta is in use
Fatal: Module wlan is in use
I then ran ifconfig in terminal and saw that ath0 showed up again. I then repeated ifconfig command to set ath0 down and repeated bash command which gave the same FATAL errors On google, lots of people seem to get these errors, and some have proceeded with make. Is this safe and could I recover if anything goes wrong?

Madwifi module and madwifi-tools are in Ubuntu repository ... all you need is to use Synaptic and install it. If you do not have internet at all you may need to download and copy relevant deb files first.

I have sone exactly that and my question is about the instructions in madwifi HOWTO.

Which HOWTO are you referring to?

Thanks for reply. 'First Time User' HOWTO on madwifi.org.

Why not this one: http://madwifi.org/wiki/UserDocs/Distro/Ubuntu

Edit: What Atheros chip is in your computer?

As far as I can tell, Adept needs internet connection to access restricted, so no dice with that suggestion. The hardware is dlink DWL G520 with, I think, A5212 chip. The FATAL errors have to do with the various wlan modules being in use although ifconfig shows all down and likewise knetworkmanager. I did a google on disabling wlan but may not be possible via software on desktop. I am thinking of ignoring FATAL errors and proceeding on to next step in HOWTO, namely make. Do you think this will work or do harm. If it does, I suppose I could always reinstall, but this still doesnt get me internet access.

OK, lets go back to square one. A5212 should work with the driver supplied with Ubuntu. You wrote ath0 and wifi0 do exist in your system so obviously the correct driver is loaded and working. Why do you want install new driver? Because it's newer?

It was not clear to me that drivers were installed in Kubuntu 8.04. I have tried using terminal commands like ifconfig, and also knetworkmanager with no luck--always get disconnected reports. This is surely because I am a linux noob, so if you could help, I would be most grateful. Thanks.

I just found WiFiDocs/WiFiHowTo on Ubuntu. So as not to bother you more than is necessary, I will work my way thru that and come back if I run into probs I can't resolve. Thanks again