I looked around and the only thing relevant was that the ubuntu driver doesn't seem to probe the link status, so I manually patched the sis190.c file as detailed here:
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/attachment.cgi?id=16963
However even after insmod-ing the new .ko file it seems to still not detect the link status:
Settings for eth0:
Supported ports: [ TP MII ]
Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Supports auto-negotiation: Yes
Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
Speed: 100Mb/s
Duplex: Full
Port: MII
PHYAD: 1
Transceiver: internal
Auto-negotiation: on
Current message level: 0x00000037 (55)
Link detected: no
-----------
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 191 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (rev 02)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 1815
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
Memory at f9ffcc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128]
I/O ports at cc00 [size=128]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: sis190
Kernel modules: sis190
-----------
This is odd given that my driver was properly inserted with the patch ( I set it's version to 1.3 as opposed to the current version (1.2))
ethtool -i eth0
driver: sis190
version: 1.3
firmware-version:
bus-info: 0000:00:04.0
Anyone who has any ideas please reply.