Ethernet Vostro 3460 Ubuntu 12.04

Installing Ubuntu 12.04 on Vostro 3460 can be ch painful due to lack of default Ethernet drivers. The laptop comes with AR8161 which is a Ethernet/Bluetooth combined controller and for which one needs alx driver. The procedure of obtaining them can be found on AskUbuntu.com (http://askubuntu.com/questions/165192/how-do-i-install-drivers-for-the-atheros-ar8161-ethernet-controller).

However, to speed things up, this is how it should be done (thanks to izx). Just open terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and type (or copy-paste) these lines:

$ 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
$ sudo modprobe alx

Please note, that in first line there is a "grave accent" (`) and not apostrophe ('), and it can be evoked with the same key as for the tilde. To see if you're using the right one, just type in shell

$ echo `uname`
Linux