could not complete SET SSID operation: operation not availabl
Hm, this indicates a problem with either the driver or the firmware. I have two suggestions:
1. Try installing Windows drivers with ndiswrapper.
2. Download & install Kanotix-2006-Easter-RC4 and update to latest kernel. If it still doesn't work, the developers Kano, slh and kelmo will help you to get it going at http://kanotix.com.