Ubuntu 12.04 Not Detecting Ethernet Wired Connection

Question

I recently did a full install of Ubuntu 12.04 (not a dual boot) on my laptop. In the past on my dual boot, I connected to a wired ethernet connection with no trouble at all.

Now, my laptop isn't detecting a wired connection when the cable is plugged in. I've tried restarting things and tinkering with files as suggested by other answers with no success.

lspci | egrep -i --color 'network|ethernet'

01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA8172 Fast Ethernet (rev 10)
02:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

Your QCA8172 controller is reported to work correctly since 13.04. Try installing a more recent kernel using the Hardware Enablement Stack Ubuntu provides for LTS releases or upgrade to 13.10. — gertvdijk, Jan 29 '14 at 22:43
This sounds promising. I don't see why it's suddenly stopped working, but I'm a Linux noob who only has a year of experience. Could you elaborate a bit more about what this stack is? I've had a bad experience with upgrading in the past, so I'm pretty nervous about this whole thing. — Kevin Busch, Jan 29 '14 at 22:56
Well, the Enablement Stack is a way to upgrade the kernel (and thus hardware support) without upgrading the whole OS. So this gives you the hardware support of Saucy (13.10) at the time of writing while keeping the 12.04.x stable userland software (well, except for Xorg, which has to be upgraded as well). Just read the document on the link I provided for details. — gertvdijk, Jan 29 '14 at 22:58
Awesome. That sounds...safer. I'm trying the Atheros driver fix suggested at the top (by you, I think). Fingers crossed. — Kevin Busch, Jan 29 '14 at 23:02
@gertvdijk I think you suggested the solution for the Atheros driver fix and it worked!!!!! THANK YOU! — Kevin Busch, Jan 29 '14 at 23:06
I want to discourage you to manually install drivers like compiling the alx driver by yourself. Really, just install packages and try a newer kernel first. It's easier now and easier to maintain. Compiling yourself is not the way to go if you're a beginner! — gertvdijk, Jan 29 '14 at 23:07

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

First thing to acknowledge here is there are reports about your specific network card being working out of the box since the Ubuntu 13.04 release. You could upgrade to 13.10 now or if you prefer, install a more recent kernel using the LTS Enablement Stack. This installs a more recent kernel (and thus more hardware support) as well as a more recent Xorg graphical stack. The latter is not really of interest, but it does provide a fairly easy way to get more hardware support without upgrading to a more recent Ubuntu release.

Ubuntu 12.04 Not Detecting Ethernet Wired Connection

2 Answers2