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?