Intel I217LM ethernet controller not detected by Ubuntu 12.04LTS

Question

My last installation of Ubuntu 12.04 on a machine using an ASUS Q87M-E motherboard with an Intel I217LM Ethernet controller has failed to detect the ethernet card. The only thing displayed by

ifconfig -a

is the loopback. I double-checked in the BIOS, and the controller should be online.

$ rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

$ lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell DRAM Controller (rev 06)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Haswell HD Audio Controller (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:16.3 Serial controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point KT Controller (rev 04)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Device 153a (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Lynx Point HD Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point 6-Port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Lynx Point SMBus Controller (rev 04)

$ lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by
vesafb                 13844  1
snd_hda_codec_realtek   224173  1
arc4                   12529  2
joydev                 17693  0
usbhid                 47238  0
hid                    99636  1 usbhid
rfcomm                 47604  0
rt73usb                31735  0
crc_itu_t              12707  1 rt73usb
rt2x00usb              20808  1 rt73usb
rt2x00lib              55326  2 rt73usb,rt2x00usb
mac80211              506862  2 rt2x00usb,rt2x00lib
cfg80211              205774  2 rt2x00lib,mac80211
eeepc_wmi              13109  0
bnep                   18281  2
asus_wmi               24456  1 eeepc_wmi
sparse_keymap          13890  1 asus_wmi
psmouse                97485  0
bluetooth             180153  10 rfcomm,bnep
ppdev                  17113  0
snd_hda_intel          33719  6
snd_hda_codec         127706  2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_seq_midi           13324  0
snd_hwdep              17764  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_rawmidi            30748  1 snd_seq_midi
serio_raw              13211  0
snd_pcm                97275  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_seq_midi_event     14899  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                61929  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              29990  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device         14540  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
parport_pc             32866  1
snd                    79041  21 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_rawmidi,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
video                  19651  0
soundcore              15091  1 snd
wmi                    19256  1 asus_wmi
snd_page_alloc         18529  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
mac_hid                13253  0
lp                     17799  0
parport                46562  3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp

$ ifconfig

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:1091 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1091 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:80048 (80.0 KB)  TX bytes:80048 (80.0 KB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:fd:07:91:a8:b9
          inet addr:172.16.42.4  Bcast:172.16.42.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::2fd:7ff:fe91:a8b9/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:56644 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:36417 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:85270918 (85.2 MB)  TX bytes:3413849 (3.4 MB)

additionally, running

sudo lshw -C network

returns:

*-network UNCLAIMED
  description: Ethernet Controller
  [...]

I'm pretty stumped at this point. This doesn't sound like a very uncommon ethernet controller and I figured it would be picked up by the system.

Does anybody have advice for how to deal with this? Anything specific I should look into to figure out what could be causing this?

Edit:

It seems that following the guide on the Intel e1000e drivers page allowed the card to start working. Is this a real fix or is there a better way?

Solution

This appears to be a real fix.

I had the same problem today and found the explanation: support for Intel I217 is available since linux kernel 3.5 (commit). As Ubuntu 12.04.2 uses kernel 3.2.x, the Ethernet card is not recognized and cannot work.

I followed your advice and installed the e1000e driver from the Intel e1000e drivers page and it worked perfectly. From there I was able to upgrade the linux kernel.

Comments

[Admin]

Can you run an "ifconfig" and post the output of it?

[Johniel E. Babiera]

Of course, updated the post with the output.

[Admin]

Oh boy.. run an "rfkill list all" and tell us the output.

[Johniel E. Babiera]

Updated the post with rfkill list all! Please note that the wireless controller is just a usb dongle I'm using right now to "bypass" not being able to connect through the wire.

[Admin]

Mm.. Ubuntu doesn't detect it yet it does.. are there any other OS's on the machine to test the Ethernet with?

[Johniel E. Babiera]

Not right away, although I might be able to get win7 or perhaps another edition of Ubuntu on a usb drive. I've heard that e1000e drivers might be of some help, do you know anything about that?

[Admin]

Unfortunately not.. What concerns me is Ubuntu knows the device is there but doesn't recognize it as a Network Adapter.. Perhaps you should install Intel's driver for your card (if they have one?) instead of Ubuntu's built in driver.. I've had this issue before.. It stumps me..

[Johniel E. Babiera]

That's awesome, thank you for investigating this further!! I was still puzzled about what was going on there until your explanation. Hopefully this is of help to people stumbling into the issue in the future.

[dbbd]

So this ethernet I217 worked with e100e driver just fine? I cannot upgrade kernels due to software limitations, and I need to use a new system with this hardware.

[cbliard]

@dbbd Once I installed the e1000e driver from the Intel site, it worked perfectly. I could continue to use this configuration (not upgrading the kernel) but I needed to upgrade. If you follow instructions on the e1000e page to compile the driver and load it, it should work as expected without upgrading the kernel.