Além dos passos básicos descrito abaixo no doc/README.
Acredito que provavelmente você terá que recompilar seu kernel habilitando o Wireless Extension:
Device Drivers
Network device support
Wireless LAN (non-hamradio)
-> [*] Wireless LAN drivers (non-hamradio) & Wireless Extensions
[*] Wireless Extension API over RtNetlink
$progname/doc/README
"...
. What I need to make it work
It works only with Linux (sorry for the *BSD :)
* You need driver for Wireless Card ;-)
* Curses
* A terminal with a minimum of 132 columns and 50 rows.
* A Wi-Fi card :-) (PrismII, Orinoco, Cisco, Atheros card and more)
On Debian you need some packages :
glib-dev
libglib2.0-dev
zlib1g-dev
libncurses-dev
Now the PCAP lib is integrated, I take the libpcap modified for Kismet, it's more simple :-)
... "
Acredito que depois destas alterações você conseguirá utilizar o programa sem problemas..