Realtek RTL8188CE wifi driver on 12.04LTS

Realtek RTL8188CE wifi driver on 12.04LTS

I've set up a fresh 12.04 (64bit, Kernel 3.8.0.29) and have issues with my
wifi card which isn't showing any networks / let alone connecting to any.
I followed this blogpost to compile the latest driver from Realtek
(download from realtek)
(make install)
(modprobe rtl8192ce)
(add to /etc/modules)
Immediately after I finished the steps above I saw wifi networks (via the
ubuntu network manager). When I then tried to connect it timed out and
after a subsequent reboot I couldn't even see any networks anymore.
Tried a lot of things since then, but I guess I fail to see the core of
the problem.
This is how the system looks like:
lspci -v -s 02:00.0
02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE
802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01)
Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 8175
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
Memory at f7b00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 01-91-81-fe-ff-4c-e0-00
Kernel driver in use: rtl8192ce
Kernel modules: rtl8192ce
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ifconfig wlan0
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 64:5a:04:31:09:bf
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
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lsmod
Module Size Used by
joydev 17613 0
bnep 18258 2
rfcomm 47864 0
bluetooth 247024 10 bnep,rfcomm
parport_pc 28284 0
ppdev 17113 0
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 37434 1
snd_hda_codec_realtek 79916 1
coretemp 13596 0
kvm_intel 137899 0
kvm 455932 1 kvm_intel
ghash_clmulni_intel 13259 0
cryptd 20501 1 ghash_clmulni_intel
hid_logitech_dj 18767 0
arc4 12573 2
microcode 23017 0
rtl8192ce 141806 0
rtlwifi 123323 1 rtl8192ce
usbhid 47346 1 hid_logitech_dj
hid 105549 2 hid_logitech_dj,usbhid
mac80211 630977 2 rtl8192ce,rtlwifi
cfg80211 525244 2 rtlwifi,mac80211
snd_hda_intel 44339 3
snd_hda_codec 141716 3
snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
lpc_ich 17144 0
snd_hwdep 13668 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 102477 3
snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_seq_midi 13324 0
snd_rawmidi 30417 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 14899 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 61930 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 29989 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 14497 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
i915 620421 3
drm_kms_helper 49597 1 i915
drm 287564 4 i915,drm_kms_helper
snd 69533 16
snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
i2c_algo_bit 13564 1 i915
mac_hid 13253 0
mei 41820 0
video 19652 1 i915
soundcore 12680 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 18798 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
lp 17799 0
parport 46562 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp
usb_storage 61749 0
ahci 25879 3
libahci 31606 1 ahci
r8169 68716 0
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cat /etc/modules
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.
lp
rtc
rtl8192ce.ko
I don't see anything that actually points me in any direction. I should
also say that i'm not exactly a Linux guru and dealing with kernel modules
is fairly new to me. After hours of fruitless try & error I'd really
appreciate if anyone more knowledgeable than me would provide some
insights on what to do next.