Ubuntu: Missing network interface and no UI

Solution 1:

To show all physical interfaces (in any state):

ip link show

To specifically show eth0:

ip link show eth0

This might show:

2: eth0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 3c:97:0e:bb:8e:a8 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Note that it's down.

To configure the interface for DHCP and bring it up:

dhclient eth0
ip link set eth0 up