So here are the messages that I see from dmesg in knoppix:

[ 470.833883] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Setting dpms mode 0 on vga encoder (output 0)
[ 470.833889] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Output VGA-1 is running on CRTC 0 using output A
[ 481.140739] usb 1-1: USB disconnect, address 2
[ 485.903327] usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
[ 486.078049] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0846, idProduct=9001
[ 486.078056] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=16, Product=32, SerialNumber=48
[ 486.078062] usb 1-1: Product: USB2.0 WLAN
[ 486.078067] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: ATHER
[ 486.078071] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 12345
[ 486.189999] usb 1-1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
[ 487.388796] usb 1-1: ar9170.fw firmware file not found, trying old firmware...
[ 487.434616] usb 1-1: file with init values not found.
[ 523.771543] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Setting dpms mode 3 on vga encoder (output 0)

Here are the messages that I see in puppy linux:

# dmesg | grep 'ar9170'
usb 1-1: firmware: requesting ar9170.fw
usb 1-1: ar9170.fw firmware file not found, trying old firmware...
usb 1-1: firmware: requesting ar9170-1.fw
usb 1-1: firmware: requesting ar9170-2.fw
Registered led device: ar9170-phy0::tx
Registered led device: ar9170-phy0::assoc
usbcore: registered new interface driver ar9170usb
#

So are you suggesting that I need to burn new firmware on the USB wireless adapter?

-Charlie