Comment 5 for bug 1196496

I would expect wmx0 to show up in ifconfig anyway, unless you blacklist the i2400m_usb module. This is a 4G broadband device.

The actual network card on this system is an Atheros, which is still seen by lspci:
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8162 Fast Ethernet [1969:1090] (rev 10)
 Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:055b]
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
 Region 0: Memory at d0400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
 Region 2: I/O ports at 2000 [size=128]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: alx
 Kernel modules: alx

The wired network device seems to be found at boot:
alx 0000:02:00.0: alx(84:8f:69:c6:d3:35): Qualcomm Atheros Ethernet Network Connection

I also have a system with a WiMAX device. I also see it being listed as a wired device with nm-tool:
- Device: wmx0 -----------------------------------------------------------------
  Type: Wired
  Driver: i2400m_usb
  State: unavailable
  Default: no

However, it does not affect my real wired devcie:
- Device: eth0 [Wired connection 1] -------------------------------------------
  Type: Wired
  Driver: e1000e
  State: connected
  Default: yes

Do you see your Atheros wired device at all with nm-tool?

There could be two issues here:
1. Network Manager is marking WiMAX as a wired device, which may or may not be desired. I'll add a nm task to the bug, so this can be reviewed. I also see my nm marked my WiMAX card as a wired device.
2. The AR8162 device is not functioning properly, which could be driver related, since it appears in lspci.

Can you try a few tests?

1. Does this system have a hardware switch or hot keys to disable wifi? If so, can you disable wifi and reboot to see if the AR8162 device appears in ifconfig -a?
2. Can you rmmod then modprobe the alx driver to see if it will allow the AR8162 to appear?
3. Can you also check that the AR8162 device has a link light.