Works for me: Knoppix 3.6 (the reduced one which I got from c't) and 3.7 (the one which I got from PC-Welt) and even on 3.4, where I used additional kernel modules.

Plugged in you should see your MA111 in an 'lsusb' output. 'lsmod' should show prism2_usb and p80211.
'wlanctl-ng wlan0 lnxreq_ifstate ifstate=enable' should make it visible to iwconfig. Try 'wlanctl-ng commands' what else you need. Maybe 'wlanctl-ng lnxreq_autojoin ssid=whatever-that-is authtype=opensystem'.