I encountered this running Knoppix 6.01

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9\
sudo ndiswrapper -i <path>rt2860.inf (this driver works with Arch and Ubuntu kernels 2.6.27 to present)
sudo depmod -a
sudo ndiswrapper -ma
sudo ndiswrapper -mi
sudo ndiswrapper -l
rt2860 is installed:hardware present
FATAL: Module ndiswrapper not found.

Odd.