Upstart problem - apache, ssh daemon not running

[Tom H]

>>>> The contents of /etc/network/interfaces might be interesting.  Is
>>>> loopback configured correctly?

>>> I don't know what this file is supposed to contain by default.
>>> Mine only contains these two lines:
>>> # Used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8). See the interfaces(5) manpage or
>>> # /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples for more information.

>>> I *think* (but may be wrong) that it shouldn't matter because loopback
>>> should be configured by default (anyway, loopback works - only the
>>> services don't get started).

>> No. And this is the problem. You have to have an entry for lo in /e/n/i:
>> auto lo
>> iface lo inet loopback

> I have now inserted these lines, as stated, but actually loopback *has*
> been working all the time - which is why, probably, that the services
> were started fine with the previous version of upstart.
> ANd as I said, I wonder of the /e/n/i file got to be empty in the first
> place - I never edited it by hand. Maybe some earlier version of the
> setup process didn't require the lo commands there?
> Though for me, this question is rather of academic interest now, since
> inserting the statements solved the problem for me :-)

What is your definition of working? How did you know that it was
working? If lo does not show up when you run "ifconfig" then it is not
up.

There must be some package that is deleting the lo entry because
someone posted a Ubuntu problem to the Debian list recently where the
resolution was adding lo entry to /e/n/i.