Integrated Intel NIC card disappear after rebootin

Hi all, I'm absolutely new to Linux... here my issue:

SUSE during setup didn't see my HP Compaq 6000 integrated NIC card (Intel 82567LM chipset)

No problem, I downloaded the driver source from Intel site, and compiled it as a RPM package using rpmbuild.

It worked immediately.

The problem now is that after reboot the nic disappear!

If a try an"ifconfig" I see only the lo interface.

Then simply going in Yast, Network card, use "Network Manager", I see the intel nic in the list, I click "finish" and the NIC is working fine again....:huh:

So it seems there is something missing to automatically start the nic during boot sequence I suppose...

any idea? :unsure:

thanks