Comment 23 for bug 858122

This error produces the "Waiting for network configuration" error message.
The fix is to symlink /var/run to /run and /var/lock to /run/lock

http://uksysadmin.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/upgrade-to-ubuntu-11-10-problem-waiting-for-network-configuration-then-black-screen-solution/

I've had a massive influx of traffic to this post suggesting this is a affecting many people on real and virtual hardware. It downed my machine immediately after the first reboot of my upgraded 11.10 laptop.

Note it doesn't affect clean installs suggesting a conflict of trying to point /var/run (directory) and /var/lock (directory) to /run and /run/lock on tmpfs as symlinks (possibly unable to remove the directories on a running system?)