Ubuntu JeOS: Restore networking after cloning a VM

I am creating virtual appliances for ESX Server using Ubuntu JeOS 8.04. It is always good to test what you have built.

After finishing one JeOS virtual machine on ESX Server, I cloned it. The cloned appliance was booted, and I logged on. A Bash script ran to change the default passwords and reinstall the SSH server to generate SSH keys. When apt-get tried to install the SSH server, I received an error and the script stopped. I ran ifconfig and found no Ethernet interface on Eth0 or Eth1.

The OS did not activate eth0 because the VM had been cloned and its network interface had been assigned a new MAC address. Only eth0 was enabled and configured for DHCP in the network scripts. The file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules showed two network interfaces with different MAC addresses.

To fix this problem run the following command:

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sudo rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

Rebooting solved the problem. This issue is not yet covered in the JeOS documentation. I hope this post helps. Credit goes to "oneloveamaru", who pointed me in the right direction.