networking can't be set from 'recovery boot mode'

I have had several times that issue:

due to a boot issue, i switch to 'recovery mode' from the grub2 menu. Then i first try to setup networking, but it always fails. So that recovery menu is useless till it will be fixed. quite a serious issue.

System config:
- grub2 on /dev/sda (ext4)
-/home on /dev/sdb3 (ext3)

possible similar report: lp:996454

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10
Package: friendly-recovery 0.2.25build1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-3.8-generic 3.16.0-rc4
Uname: Linux 3.16.0-3-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.14.4-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Wed Jul 16 18:07:01 2014
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: friendly-recovery
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)