Use iwconfig to check if your wireless adapter is recognized
To install Wavemon use the following command :
sudo apt-get install -y wavemon
start using the following command
wavemon
iwconfig
which will give you something like :
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"TheMatrix" Nickname:"XXXXXX"
Mode:Managed Freq:2.427 GHz Access Point: 00:18:4D:10:49:C6
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Sensitivity:0/0
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=98/100 Signal level=83/100 Noise level=0/100
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0