network-manager fails to bring up eth0

Binary package hint: network-manager

I updated my 11.04 installation a couple of hours ago on my Averatec 3280 laptop, and neither eth0 nor my wifi interface came up. Also the nm-applet does not appear in the notification area. I finally had to configure eth0 manually to make that interface work.

Linux distro/version and kernel version
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu Natty (development branch)
Release: 11.04
Codename: natty
Linux cupid 2.6.38-5-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP Tue Feb 22 16:09:46 UTC 2011 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux
model name : Mobile AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 2800+
cpu MHz : 1600.000

Here is the configuration file for eth0 for network-manager:
[802-3-ethernet]
duplex=full
mac-address=0:40:45:26:30:73

[connection]
id=Auto eth0
uuid=b316264c-91fc-4107-b092-22fd9374bc2d
type=802-3-ethernet
timestamp=1298580148

[ipv6]
method=ignore

[ipv4]
method=manual
dns=192.168.2.201;208.201.224.11;
addresses1=192.168.2.53;24;192.168.2.2;

I then manually configured eth0 as follows:

root@cupid:~/bin# cat set43.sh
#!/bin/bash
ifconfig eth0 192.168.2.43 netmask 255.255.255.0
route add default gw 192.168.2.2

/etc/resolv.conf looks like
# Generated by NetworkManager
nameserver 192.168.2.201
nameserver 208.201.224.11

BUT that was generated before the update that disabled network-manager.

# apt-cache policy network-manager
network-manager:
  Installed: 0.8.3+git.20110210t152733.00327fb-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 0.8.3+git.20110210t152733.00327fb-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 0.8.3+git.20110210t152733.00327fb-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: network-manager 0.8.3+git.20110210t152733.00327fb-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-5.32-generic 2.6.38-rc6
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-5-generic i686
Architecture: i386
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Date: Thu Feb 24 13:38:47 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Alpha i386 (20101202)
IpRoute:
 192.168.2.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.2.43
 default via 192.168.2.2 dev eth0
Keyfiles: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
NetworkManager.state:
 [main]
 NetworkingEnabled=true
 WirelessEnabled=true
 WWANEnabled=true
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: network-manager