How to install Atheros R8162 NIC

How to install Atheros R8162 NIC

This Page will take you through the steps of Downloading…Compiling…and Installing the Atheros R8162 NIC module for your Cat5 network card.

In most cases, the Network Interface Card known to most as NIC will come preinstalled by Calculate and Slackware… If users do find themselves installing Network Card modules then the install will be for just the WiFi card. Not the case for the Atheros R8162. It is newer and just is not currently offered preinstalled by any Linux distribution that I have checked (April 2013). Including Calculate, Slackware, Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Arch, Gentoo, Debian and all the spinoffs of each of the aforementioned distributions. However, don’t bypass a machine that has the Atheros R8162 NIC because the module for the NIC can be obtained and Installed with little trouble.

Just Follow these Steps

Here are the steps to download and compile… Worked like a charm with the WiCD Network interface manager.

Download the Source file from here

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking/alx

For the below file… 2013-03-04 date seems to work best. Some others gave me compile errors. The driver source is one of two choices for us

compat-drivers-2013-03-04-u.tar.bz2

OR

compat-drivers-2013-03-04-p.tar.bz2

We are better off with the u

The -u postfix annotates that we have applied a driver under a unified driver

DOWNLOAD: /compat-drivers-2013-03-04-u.tar.bz2

Open a Terminal in Download Directory
Right Click on File and Choose (Extract Here) to Auto Extract to a Dir Named the same as the Downloaded file.
Next change dir into (New Install DIr) with FileManager or Terminal

cd /Downloads/compat-wireless-2012-02-28-u

Now you should be in the dir /compat-wireless-2012-02-28-u
Become root user and compile modules:

./scripts/driver-select alx
su
make
make install

Unload all: wireless, bluetooth and ethernet modules:

make unload
make wlunload
make btunload

Load new module:
modprobe alx

If unsure you can just reboot. In the end Calculate should work fine with the Atheros alx module installed.