Adding blacklist rtl8187 blacklist ieee80211_rtl to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist fixed this for me.
-- Feisty Herd 2 freezes during startup, AMD64 & i386 - nvram, RTL8187 https://launchpad.net/bugs/80810 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
