OpenBSD 4.7 and 4.8 on Lenovo G555 update – bringing alc0 to life

“While some users of the Lenovo G555 laptop and its Atheros
AR8132 Ethernet interface report no trouble with networking in
OpenBSD using the alc driver (courtesy of FreeBSD) that made its
debut in version 4.7 of the operating system, that wasn’t the case
for me.

“The wired Ethernet interface shows up in the dmesg as alc0 but
doesn’t “light up.”

“I’ve since determined with the jggimi live CD of OpenBSD 4.7
and an install on a 4 GB USB flash drive of OpenBSD 4.8 from
snapshots that I must specify the media type to make the interface
“light up” and go from “no carrier” to … carrier, I suppose you
call it.”

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