Hi. After a few reboots today, finally tonight 'eth0' decided to show up.
Here is the output of lspci (figured it was best to past it all):

[pwall@pwall-laptop ~]$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 Host Bridge Alternate
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems Device 9602
00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0)
00:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 2)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 3)
00:11.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
00:12.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:12.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700 USB OHCI1 Controller
00:12.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700 USB OHCI1 Controller
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 3c)
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 LPC host controller
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] HyperTransport Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Miscellaneous Control
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Link Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M860G [Mobility Radeon 4100]
0e:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8192SE Wireless LAN Controller (rev 10)
14:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)

Downloaded the driver from realtek....installed. Now eth0 doesn't show up.
how frustrating.......

Do you see the module loaded? Use lsmod command to have a look.

Yes, r81 appears in lsmon. Here's the output:

Module Size Used by
nls_utf8 1001 1
aes_i586 7078 1
aes_generic 26388 1 aes_i586
r8101 60394 0
michael_mic 1516 8
arc4 1041 4
ecb 1491 4
vfat 6435 1
fat 36677 1 vfat
ipt_MASQUERADE 1688 1
iptable_nat 4487 1
nf_nat 15357 2 ipt_MASQUERADE,iptable_nat
bridge 37420 0
stp 1367 1 bridge
llc 3545 2 bridge,stp
sunrpc 159624 1
cpufreq_ondemand 6732 2
powernow_k8 12825 0
xt_physdev 1363 1
ip6t_REJECT 3298 2
nf_conntrack_ipv6 13996 2
ip6table_filter 2191 1
ip6_tables 9211 1 ip6table_filter
ipv6 216232 28 ip6t_REJECT,nf_conntrack_ipv6
fuse 46663 4
kvm_amd 25723 0
kvm 213126 1 kvm_amd
uinput 5210 0
snd_hda_codec_realtek 200704 1
snd_hda_intel 20351 3
snd_hda_codec 61515 2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
r8192se_pci 456199 0
uvcvideo 46869 0
snd_hwdep 4704 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_seq 41363 0
snd_seq_device 4867 1 snd_seq
videodev 29534 1 uvcvideo
v4l1_compat 11106 2 uvcvideo,videodev
i2c_piix4 10090 0
joydev 7291 0
snd_pcm 59444 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
k10temp 2371 0
snd_timer 15063 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 45127 13 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm,snd_timer
microcode 10013 0
soundcore 4842 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 5941 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
rfkill 12905 1
usb_storage 34392 1
video 17109 0
output 1541 1 video
radeon 552859 2
ttm 43888 1 radeon
drm_kms_helper 21663 1 radeon
drm 133962 4 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit 3929 1 radeon
i2c_core 19731 6 videodev,i2c_piix4,radeon,drm_kms_helper,drm,i2c_algo_bit

What happens if run the command 'ifconfig eth0 up' ? Post any error messages.

[root@pwall-laptop ~]# 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:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:480 (480.0 b) TX bytes:480 (480.0 b)

virbr0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 9E:E6:E15:05:1F
inet addr:192.168.122.1 Bcast:192.168.122.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:11 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:3881 (3.7 KiB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 70:F1:A1:15:FE:F6
inet addr:192.168.0.154 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::72f1:a1ff:fe15:fef6/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:4745 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2519 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1853416 (1.7 MiB) TX bytes:514274 (502.2 KiB)
Interrupt:18 Memory:f9ce8000-f9ce8100

[root@pwall-laptop ~]# ifconfig eth0 up
eth0: unknown interface: No such device

And I haven't the slightest clue what is (and where it came from): virbr0

This is the name the driver gives the first wired lan interface. Usually you see eth0. Can you ping anything? You have this address Is this valid for your network? Are you on network 192.168.1.x ?

FYI virbr0 is a virtual bridge network used by Virtualization guest and host OSs for network communication.

1 members found this post helpful.

michaelk - Thank-you for the info. I did some googling on that interface, and it seems it is Red Hat and its derivatives that use it. As far as I know, it will not cause any problems, and for now we can just leave it there. I have never seen in since I don't run Red Hat, Centos or Fedora.

I think now there is a newer driver for your card that may fix the problem with the wired connection. I have a new netbook, a HP mini 210. I'm still testing the hardware with Ubuntu. I had not bothered with the wired connection, yet because I had wireless working, and this device will be used mostly for traveling. I tested the wired connection yesterday, and discovered it has the same Nic hardware as your system.

From lsmod...

So, mine is working fine with r8169 on Ubuntu.

See if you can find that driver in the repos for Fedora, if not from Realtek.

Hope this helps.

Well since late last week, the eth0 has been rock solid. Not sure exactly what was done, that is, I can't say of the things tried (documented in this thread), which exactly solved the issue.
Nonetheless, eth0 has worked ever since.

Many thanks for all the help!

You are welcome.