fwiw
i had a hell of a time getting kismet to work with my orinoco gold card until i downloaded knoppix-std and then it worked first time.
the major problem wiith the orinoco is that it has limited range for cracking wep.
sdduming you are trying it at home you cant exactly hang your laptop out the window,
ideally you want a usb adaptor with an extension cable which you can then hang out your window or move to a better signal reception area,
i use a linksys usb adaptor for my surfing and it picks up many more packets than my orinoco,
unfortunately it is not supported by kismet,
i am going to buy one of these netgear ma111 adaptors and try it with knoppix-std,
that would be perfect for cracking wep,