I just did a recent install of Ubuntu Server 12.10 (no GUI, command line only) on a new system. I noticed that upon booting the server does not obtain an IP address from my router. However, once I log into the machine locally the server shows up on my list of DCHP clients and I can connect remotely without issue. After some initial research, I looked at my /etc/network/interfaces/
# The loopback network interface
auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback
# The primary network interface
iface eth0 inet dhcp
Others who had similar issues usually were missing either "auto eth0" or the "dhcp" and were able to fix their problem by adding those lines in. My set up seems to be fine the way it is.
Next up, I tried looking at /etc/local.rc and made two different attempts for the server to add eth0 on boot:
Attempt #1
ifup eth0
exit 0
Attempt #2
dhclient eth0
exit 0
Yet neither of these changes caused the server to obtain IP before an initial local login. Since I'm trying to run this server headless, being able to remotely login upon boot is pretty important for my needs. Any insight would be greatly appreciated since most forums suggest to make the changes that I've already tried. Thanks for your help.