How do I install drivers for the Atheros AR8161 Ethernet controller?

Solution 1:

The AR8161 is a very new combined Ethernet/Bluetooth controller and its driver alx is in the testing/QA process, so it's not in the kernel yet.

To build and install the driver:

We will download a recent compat-wireless-pc driver package, install build dependencies, select the AR8161 module alx, build and install it.

Type/paste the following, line-by-line, in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic linux-headers-`uname -r`
wget -O- http://linuxwireless.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/compat-wireless-2012-07-03-pc.tar.bz2 | tar -xj
cd compat-wireless-2012-07-03-pc
./scripts/driver-select alx
make
sudo make install

You can then reboot, or manually load the driver with:

sudo modprobe alx

Solution 2:

Ubuntu now provides a package for this driver.

To install the driver:

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-cw-3.4-precise-generic
sudo modprobe alx