1) sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces
Should have entries similar to the following (one of mine was disabled):
# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
# Wirless
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
2) Network interface now working but at boot Ubuntu still flags networking disabled, to fix edit NetworkManager.state and ensure NetworkingEnabled is set to true.
sudo vi /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state
[main]
NetworkingEnabled=true
WirelessEnabled=true
WWANEnabled=true
WirelessEnabled=true
WWANEnabled=true
3) Final piece of jigsaw, all the above changes gave me a Network connection but still no Network Manager applet. To fix this edit nm-system-settings.conf and change managed to true.
sudo vi /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf
sudo vi /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf
[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile
[ifupdown]
managed=true
[ifupdown]
managed=true
4) Restart Network Manager
sudo vi /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf