[ubuntu-uk] e1000e driver woes on 10.10

[Tim Dobson]

Heya,

I'm having some issues with my parent's recently upgraded maverick 
desktop and I wondered if anyone had any thoughts here.

The issue is that the ethernet connectivity appears to (in about 50% of 
boots) bounce continuously giving the users no connectivity.

When the interface doesn't come up properly here are the results of:
cat /var/log/syslog | grep e1000e
http://pastebin.com/ctKj9HPX

FYI, a successful boot where looks like this; http://pastebin.com/L4c8YmPA

It's a Lenovo thinkcentre and is connected to a router right next to it 
with a 0.5m length of Cat5 Ethernet. The router has other things hanging 
off it and does not loose connectivity. The Ethernet cable has been 
swapped out and switch ports have been changed. This hasn't made a 
difference.

I suspect the issue has only occurred since the upgrade to 10.10.

lspci -nn for the interface gives:
00:19.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82566DM Gigabit 
Network Connection [8086:104a] (rev 02)

tim at vitalstatistix:~$ lsmod | grep e100
e1000e                151787  0

On a successful boot querying ethtool gives:

tim at vitalstatistix:~$ sudo ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
	Supported ports: [ TP ]
	Supported link modes:   10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
	                        1000baseT/Full
	Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
	Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
	                        1000baseT/Full
	Advertised pause frame use: No
	Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
	Speed: 100Mb/s
	Duplex: Full
	Port: Twisted Pair
	PHYAD: 1
	Transceiver: internal
	Auto-negotiation: on
	MDI-X: on
	Supports Wake-on: pumbag
	Wake-on: g
	Current message level: 0x00000001 (1)
	Link detected: yes

I know I've probably not really got enough data of it failing for people 
to be able to help that much, what would be useful to include?

Thanks in advance :)

Tim

(Sorry to summon the hivemind, however I've been in bed for the past two 
weeks with flu and you know how frustrating it is doing parental tech 
support at the best of times!) :)