Damn ubuntu.

[Michael Butash]

So per a prior comment about odd efi-booting asus laptop, I'm still 
dealing with getting an os on it.

I installed Ubuntu server 13.10 on it as the desktop installer was 
unstable, and installed fine enough.  Now, my kernels are straight 
missing most of my drivers for things like my network cards and who 
knows what else.  If I install header packages, they are there, but 
otherwise mia.

I've never seen such a broken kernel install before, did the initrd 
system change on here?  Is there some additional package set it needs 
now installed to see an atheros atl1c driver gig nic?  Even the intel 
driver for the wlan nic is missing, so it's not just an "atheros" 
thing.  It works fine with the server generic kernel's initrd - really 
flippin befuddling.

Backstory:

Because ubuntu's desktop installer is so broken and incomplete for 
13.10, I had to resort to using server to get my normal disk setup 
working using raid, crypto, and lvm.  After wasting a week with the 
desktop installer(s), at least I could get this to install clean, aside 
from it not creating a crypttab properly on install that consumed my 
morning.

This was after spending almost a week trying to make any form of ubuntu 
work on it, getting so pissed and spending another few just to learn 
Arch, realized that all in all I'd rather have a deb-based system, so 
went back again to try server to at least install.  I'm really wondering 
why...

Thanks in advance!

-mb