[PLUG] DHCP Config problems

[Scott Howard]

This is driving me crazy.  I install Ubuntu Server on a portable drive
at home.  Fire it up on a wired network and check ifconfig.  It
dutifully gives me the internal ip address from my router and is able to
access the internet.  I then dutifully reboot the machine turning it off
after everything is killed but before the reboot starts.

The scene changes to my office where I turn on a different machine with
no drives but the portable drive on the USB port.  Ubuntu server boots
up and works just fine until I sudo ifconfig.  The internal loop shows
127.0.0.0 shows but the wired network ip address does not.
Init.d/networking restart gets an eth0 no such device message.

Ubuntu LiveCd on the office machine get the network and internet just
fine.

Any thoughts or help would be appreciated or even a large hammer would
be appreciated.  

Scott Howard