Can we speed up Network Manager?

[utu]

The line needed to be rooted for the LED to fire, but wasn't able to connect. Therefore, resorted to 'udhcpc' that was installed from synaptic:

I didn't make it clear that in Knoppix 7.2, I've gone back to using Network Manager.
I now use only the line I quoted earlier to boot my system.
You are quite right that the line itself must be issued by root.
This is, or may be, done by /etc/rc.local which has root:root ownership.

The programs you like in 7.03 may be available in 7.2 as well.
I'll take a look at my Synaptic to see if that's so, if you'll name it (or them).