Apparently mainline kernel 3.8.5 is compiled without support for recent Atheros Communications Inc. AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet card. I know it is supplied in recent kernels with the module name alx.
Compilation of Driver Backports Wiki
The backporting mechanism doesn't work here since and it fails during compiling (and no wonder, since it is written that it is compatible with no later than 3.6 kernels).
I could use compat-drivers, but they fail to build.
What are my options (except from recompiling the whole kernel) to add alx module?
(I need a recent kernel because I'm playing with btrfs).
By the way I use ASUS N56VZ notebook.
Update:
Unified alx driver strategy attempt for Linux and FreeBSD did compile, but it didn't install the driver. (No errors in process, but ultimately no network eighter.
I did put sudo make linux-install after compilation. But after reboot the the alx module is still not present.)
You have two options.
1) Try this ppa
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/
You download the kernel you want to try and install it with dpkg
change the name to the kernel you download. If you are building modules you will need the headers as well.
See also: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds
Note these kernels are intended for testing only and no support is available.
2) Compile a kernel yourself.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Kernel/Compile
Once you build a few kernels it is not too hard. Start with localmodconfig and then check to see the alx module is going to be compiled.
http://bodhizazen.com/Tutorials/kernel#localmodconfig