Network setup for Debian GNU/Linux

This document assumes that most people who have installed/configures a Debian GNU/Linux system know what they are doing already.

Basically you need to ensure that at least one of the (several) dhcp client packages (e.g. pump or dhcp-client) is already installed. Then edit the file:

  /etc/network/interfaces

which is the configuration file for ifup so that the relevant interface says something like:

  iface eth0 inet dhcp

See the documentation e.g. man 5 interfaces for further details.

Apparently there are some tools/packages to automate setting up the /etc/network/interfaces file and other networking stuff, but no-one seems to bother to install them anyway.