Trying to install madwifi drivers on USB LinuxMint

So I haven't really messed with linux before and wanted to try it out. Well I have created a USB version of LinuxMint so that if I don't like it, then I still have my windows installed.

I have a Atheros AR5008 chipset. There are some special pre-release drivers that supposidly work for it.

I'm trying to use this guide:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_ar5008

or this guide:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_checkout_and_install_madwifi_experimental_driver_for_ar5008

Which ever works. Well I went to the USB drive once in LinuxMint and typed mkdir in a terminal and it says read-only. I try to change the permissions and it is 'greyed out'. So I can not even start the very beginning of the guides. I don't even know what the name/pass is for linuxMint.

Also I want to keep this all on the USB stick. So when it installs the drivers, will it save the changes to the USB or will it revert everytime I exit?

 

Check out this : http://pendrivelinux.com/

 

Try using the sudo before the mkdir command. The password should be the one you set during setup. It does not have true root user. Also if you loaded a gnome you should be able to set/change this under system>users and groups.

Try searching the Ubuntu site Linux Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu. There might be a better guide there.