Comment 6 for bug 1013843

The late_command phase is after a reboot in the target environment.[0] (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

[0]https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallCDCustomization

On the target system, with resolvconf, it's to be expected that no nameserver addresses are listed in /etc/resolv.conf, given that no addresses are listed in /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/* or in /etc/network/interfaces and the interface is defined in /e/n/i as "manual".

Would it be possible for you to run all the commands I mentioned in #1 and #2, plus "cat /etc/network/interfaces", on a Precise system (where you say resolv.conf is not empty) at exactly the same stage?